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UNITED STATES 01<' AMERICA. 



I 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING 



THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF 



COTTON MANUFACTUEEES AND PLANTEES, 



HELD IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK, 



WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 1869, 



teiv^ 



BOSTON: 
PRESS OF W. L. DELAND & CO. 

No. 22 Congress Street. 

1869. 






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CONTENTS 



Page . 

Opening Remarks of the President 5 

Report of the Secretary 6 

Report of the Treasurer 18 

Report of the Finance Committee 18 

Report of the Committee on Statistics .......... 19 

New Machinery 23 

Report of Vice-President Wesson 25 

Tare and False Pacldng 28 

Memorial of the Memphis Convention 33 

The Tariff. Resolutions and Discussion ......... 33 

Election of Officers 38 

The next Annual Meeting 38 

Amendments to the By-laws proposed ,» . . 39 

Appendix A. 

Synopsis of Returns from Cotton Mills 41 

Appendix B. 

Memorial of the Memphis Convention 42 

Appendix C. 

List of Officers 51 



PROCEEDINGS 



The first annual meeting of the National As- 
sociation of Cotton Manufacturers and Planters 
was held at the St. I^icholas Hotel, in the city of 
'New York, on Wednesday, June 30, 1869. 

The meeting was called to order at 12 o'clock, 
by the President of the Association, Mr. Amos 
A. Lawrence, of Massachusetts, who said: 

In welcoming you here, gentlemen of the Association, to our 
first annual meeting, I can only express the pleasure and the 
satisfiiction that we must all feel in having so fair a representa- 
tion from the different sections of country, cotton-growers and 
manufacturers, representatives of the greatest single interest in 
the land, meeting together for consultation and cooperation. 
It is a good sign for the future that the active, intelligent busi- 
ness men of our country are finding out that success, prosperity, 
and progress are best obtained through mutual confidence, 
goodwill, and cooperation. 

I will not take advantage, as Chairman of this meeting, to 
forestall its action by proposing plans or stating facts, which 
will be better presented by those who will take part in to-day's 
business. 

There is one statement which may be made here, because 
there has been some distrust of its truth; and that is, that in 
no case has the information which has been given to tlie 
Secretary of this Association by individual or corporate 
manufacturers, in regard to their own business, been imparted 
to any member of the Government, or to any other person 
whatever. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 

The Secretary submitted his annual report, 
as follows: 

The By-Laws of this Association make it the duty of the Secretary 
to prepare, under the direction of the Government, an Annual Report 
' of the transactions and condition of the Association, with such statis- 
tical information as he may have collected under the direction of the 
Committee on Statistics. 

In conformity with this requirement, the following Report is pre- 
sented : — 

\ This Association was organized on the 29th of April, 1868, by gen- 
tlemen from all parts of the United States, who were engaged in the 
culture and manufacture of cotton, and who had convened in the city 
of New York, pursuant to a call issued by the leading cotton manu- 
facturers of the country. / In accordance with Articles of Organization 
and By-Laws adopted by that Convention, a Government consisting 
of a President, a Vice President for each State there represented, 
and fifty other members, was elected. 

On the call of the President, the Government met for the first time 
in Boston, June 10, 1868. The organization was completed by the fill- 
ing of some vacancies in the list of officers, and by the appointment 
of an Executive Committee to direct the affairs of the Association in 
the intervals between the meetings of the Government. Various sub- 
jects of practical.interest to cotton growers and spinners were con- 
sidered. The subject of the allowance of tare upon cotton, with that 
of fraudulent packing, both of which had been freely discussed at the 
Convention in New York, were brought before the meeting, and after 
full debate, were referred to a special Committee of thirteen members 
from different States. A Committee was also appointed to consider 
the subject of the claims made by purchasers of goods for alleged 
damage or imperfection of manufacture. 

Two other meetings of the Government have been held during the 
year, one in New York on the 6th of October, one in Baltimore on the 
10th of February. Much interest was manifested in the proceedings 
of these meetings. The several special and standing Committees 
reported progress, and their reports elicited interesting and earnest 
discussion. Mr. Mudge, for the Committee on Claims of Manufac- 
turers for Allowance, reported that the Committee had not yet received 
sufficient data upon which to base any specific recommendation in 
regard to the class of claims referred to them, nor were they yet satis- 
fied that the adoption of any rules on the subject was demanded. 
Further time was granted to the Committee. 

The Committee on Tare and False Packing presented at the meeting 
in New York, through Mr. Haines, of Maine, a report embodying 
much valuable information and suggestion, and designed to call forth ^ 
a full expression of opinion. After an animated debate, in which it 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 7 

was agreed on all hands tliat it was for the interest alike of the 
planter and manufactnrer that the allowance of tare should be made 
on all sales of cotton, and that measures ought to be taken to diffuse 
correct views on the subject through the Cotton States, in order to 
secure its proper regulation by legislative enactments, or by the action 
of commercial associations, the report was, at the request of the 
gentlemen who presented it, re-committed with a view to the more 
full and mature deliberation of the subject, and its presentation 
hereafter. The subject was again incidentally considered at the meet- 
ing in Baltimore, and the views of gentlemen from all parts of the 
couutrj^ were given with the understanding that the Committee to 
whom it had been referred, would be prepared to report at the annual 
meeting. 

At each meeting of the Government the Standing Committee on Sta- 
tistics has reported progress. Its first report made to the meeting 
in June, just after the Association had been organized, was necessarily 
meagre, but it was supplemented by a fuller report which was issued 
as an appendix to the printed proceedings of that meeting. These, 
and the reports of the same Committee, made in October and Febru- 
ary, with the tabular statements which accompanied them, embodied 
much information respecting the production and distribution of cotton 
and cotton goods in the United States and throughout the world. This 
information, so far as it related to foreign countries, was gathered 
from the most trustworthy sources, in the collation of which much 
labor had been spent by the Committee. The statistics of American 
manufactures have been collected by this Association since its organi- 
zation, and they embody information now for the first time presented. 

At the very organization of the Association two points presented 
themselves as of the first importance, both in time and in degree. 
The one was that we should know the extent of the interests engaged 
in the production and consumption of cotton in this country, and the 
other that the Association should be brought into communication with 
the cotton growers and manufacturers throughout the United States. 
So far as the cotton growers were concerned, it was deemed that this 
knowledge and intercourse must be secured mainly through the efforts 
of the oflicers of the Association in the Cotton States, and especially 
of the Vice President in each of those States. In regard to the man- 
ufacturers, however, it was necessary to open communication directly 
with each one ; and here embarrassment arose, for no full list was to 
be had of the cotton manufacturers of the country. The first efforts 
of ttie Secretary were directed, therefore, to the preparation of such a 
list. From private sources of information, from the books of the 
United States assessors, and from business directories and similar 
works, an imperfect list was made up. A circular was addressed to 
each person whose name had thus been obtained, with questions 
appended^ asking the name of his mill, the address of its proprietor or 
executive manager, the class of goods manufactured, the number of 
spindles, size of yarn, and quantity of cotton consumed annually; 



8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

asking also for the names of neighboring manufacturers. When the 
answers to these inquiries began to fail, new circulars were issued. 
Four diflerent general appeals were thus made, and innumerable let- 
ters written to individuals. Through the efforts of the officers and 
members of the Association in the different States, oftentimes involv- 
ing a great deal of labor on their part, and through the kind attention 
of many manufacturers, and of numerous postmasters throughout 
the country, to whom, as a last resort, inquiries were directed, returns 
have at length been obtained from nearly every mill in the country. 
This has been a tedious and laborious task, but it is believed that the 
results will fully repay the outlay. The names and address have been 
learned of all the cotton manufacturers in the country, so that at any 
time communication can be opened with them for the collection and 
dissemination of information, or to secure their cooporation in meas- 
ures demanded by the common interest. 

Further than this the direct information which has been obtained is 
very valuable. Before the formation of this Association the number 
of cotton spindles in the country had been variously estimated at from 
five to five and a half millions. The amount of cotton annually con- 
sumed in the mills wiis estimated at eight hundred and fifty thousand 
bales, or less. The statistics collected, however, show that the num- 
ber of spindles in operation is six and three-quarter millions, and that 
the average annual consumption of cotton is about one million bales. It 
is also found that the yarns produced average much finer than had been 
estimated. In the Report upon the Cotton Manufacture made to the 
Boston Board of Trade in 1863, Mr. Atkinson estimated that the 
average number of yarn spun in the New England and Middle States 
was between 20 and 24. This was very nearly correct, probably, as 
applied to the years of full cotton supply before the war. When, 
however, the supply of cotton was reduced and prices rose, finer 
goods were made, yet in July, 1868, the Committee on Statistics, in 
their supplementary report, state that from sources of the best infor- 
mation they had received estimates of the average size of yarn, vary- 
ing from No. 21 to No. 24. Our returns show, however, that the 
average size of yarns made in the Northern States is now No. 27|, and 
the average size in the whole country No. 275. 

According to the Statistics of the Industry of Massachusetts, as 
quoted by Mr. Batchelder, in his Report on the Cotton Manufacture, 
made to the Boston Board of Trade in 1861, the consumption of cotton 
in Massachusetts was, in 1845, 69.54 pounds per spindle, and in 1855, 
69.66 pounds per spindle, the average being 69.6 pounds. The present 
consumption in Massachusetts is shown by our returns to be 57.9 
pounds per spindle. Supposing that this reduced consumption per 
spindle is consequent upon the change from coarse to fine goods, and 
that a proportionate reduction has been made in all the northern mills, 
■ and that with the return of an abundant supply of cotton and low 
prices, the coarser goods would again be made, we should then consume 
20 per cent more cotton than now, or about 175,000 bales more. A 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 9 

complete return to coarser goods is not however to be anticipated. 
The tendency of the cotton manufacture is everywhere toward increas- 
ing fineness of fabric. Especially is that the case in this country, 
where we have, until lately, been largely dependent upon foreign sources 
for our finer cotton goods, but have for several years not only supplied 
ourselves with the coarser goods, but have successfully competed for 
their sale in the markets of the world. In 1860 our exports of manu- 
factured cottons, nearly all of wiiich were drills and other heavy goods, 
amounted to $11,000,000. Our manufacturing progress, therefore, must 
be mainly in the direction of supplying ourselves, and eventually 
others, with those finer fabrics that were imported before the war. / 

The knowledge of our increasing consuming capacity is of great 
importance to both the grower and manufacturer of cotton. When, at 
the first meeting of the Government of this Association in June last 
the Committee on Statistics reported progress, although at that time 
returns had been received from only 202 mills, the indications which 
they afibrded were so clear that the following language was used : 

"But the Committee find these imperfect returns contain informa- 
tion and suggestions of great importance especially as they show that 
all the cotton statistics of the American crop and its distribution, as 
published, are erroneous and unreliable to an extent which already de- 
monstrates the usefulness of this part of the work of the Association, 
and when fully ascertained will probably show not only that the cotton 
crop of 1867-8 is materially larger than has been supposed, but that the 
surplus having been consumed in the United States, the relative posi- 
tion of the cotton consumption in our country is enlarged in even 
greater proportion." 

These anticipations have been fully realized. The cotton statistics, 
as made up from week to week for market reports, had been gathered 
from the Custom House returns at the several cotton ports, with esti- 
mates of the quantities transported by inland routes. These items 
constitute the Commercial Crop, so called. Besides these, however, it 
was known that a considerable amount was consumed in the Southern 
States, in the mills and elsewhere. When the "Annual Statements" 
were made up at the end of the year, this " Southern consumption " had 
to be credited with such quantities as needed to be accounted for to 
explain the discrepancy between the aggregates which the reporters 
had reached and the generally acknowledged amount of the crop. The 
estimates of inland transit were necessarily inexact, and have been for 
several years past very low, having by no means kept pace with the 
rapid increase of railroad transportation. This large margin of mere 
estimate gives speculators and middle-men an opportunity, which they 
are not slow to seize, to enrich themselves at the expense of both the 
cotton grower and spinner, and to aggravate those fiuctuations in the 
market which are equally detrimental to the interests of both. 

The reports of the Committee on Raw Material which have been 
made at the meetings of the Government, and circulated in print with 
those of the Committee on .Statistics, have- been devoted mainly to the 

2 



10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

subject of the supply and demand, and the relation of these to price. 
The report made in October called attention to the fact that the world's 
supply of cotton, for the year ending October 1, had been overdrawn, 
and that the reserves were from 300,000 to 500,000 bales less. In 
February, on the other hand, indications were pointed out of a counter 
movement and the prospect shown of such a reduction of consumption 
as would probably leave an increase of stocks on October 1, 1869. In 
each case the effect of the report was to moderate undue tendencies in 
the market ; in the one instance to depression, in the other to inflation 
of prices. 

Such, briefly, is the history of our first year's work. It has been 
rapidly sketched because that through the discussions of the several 
meetings which have been held, and through the printed reports of 
those discussions and of the labors and deliberations of the commit- 
tees, the members of the Association have already been informed of 
the leading transactions. 

Our work has been an unostentatious one. Much of it has been done 
out of sight, quiet office work, gathering facts and opening intercourse 
among the widely scattered representatives of the great interest we 
would advance, — underground work, laying foundations for future 
usefulness on which we hope to build hereafter. We claim, however, 
that we have vindicated our right to Jive. What we have done is but 
a promise and earnest of what we may do hereafter. 

Association of effort among those of common interests is a 
necessity of our day and our land. Every city has its Chamber 
of Commerce or Board of Trade. Without these, individuals may 
be successful in their enterprises, but even this success will be 
hazarded and restricted by that tendency to narrowness of vision 
and limit of grasp which isolation foster, while for a people con- 
tending as a community in the strife and competition of these 
busy days, union of counsels and of effort is essential to success. 
Questions are continually coming up relating to trade, legislation, 
finance, and many other topics, harmonious action upon which, in any 
community, can only be obtained, and the due influence of that com- 
munity upon public opinion and the public counsels be secured, through 
an organization which shall at once afford the means of interchange of 
thought among individuals, and its result in an authoritative expression 
of the average, unbiassed opinion of the community. Further, 
local jealousies and interests so far aflect the action of local commer- 
cial associations, that the due influence of the mercantile class in the 
country can only be attained by a National Association, in which, as in 
a sort of federal union, the several local associations can meet by del- 
egates and in conference reach a common understanding upon the 
great commercial questions of the day. Hence the formation, during 
the past year, of the National Board of Trade of the United States. So 
is it with the agricultural interests of the country. Wherever farming 
has been carried on with enlightened energy, farmers have associated 
themselves together in town and county societies for mutual help and 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 11 

encouragement, and the degree of enlightenment and energy which 
prevails in any farming community may be pretty safely gauged by the 
degree of wisdom and zeal that is embodied in such societies. Town 
and county societies unite to form State Associations, and these again 
And their federal head in the National Agricultural Society, which em- 
bodies, and, in a sense and measure, creates the wisdom and the influ- 
ence of the agriculturists of the United States. 

If such associations are needed by such large classes as the merchants 
and farmers, who compose the bulk of most of our communities, thej-- 
are much more needed by those various branches of industry, the mem- 
bers of which are scattered abroad over the country in greater or 
smaller numbers. 

An illustration of the power which such associated action confers is 
found in the case of the wool industry of the country, in many respects 
analogous to the cotton, and only second to that in extent and impor- 
tance. 

I In nearly every State where sheep are raised there is a Wool Growers 
Association organized for mutual enlightenment and aid. These unit- 
ing in the National "Wool Growers Association, become a power in the 
land. Through this organization the leading wool growers from all 
sections of the country are brought together. Mutual acquaintance 
and intercourse promote mutual respect and modify and moderate 
sectional prejudices. The Association speaks to its great constituency 
and for that constituency to the' country at large, to the related inter- 
ests, and to Congress with an authority and an effect which no individ- 
ual or local association could exert. 

The National Association of Wool Manufacturers, again, composed 
of the workers of wool throughout the country as the last-named body 
is of the growers, speaks with a power and works with an effect that 
individual manufacturers or local associations or temporary organiza- 
tions improvised to meet some special issue, could not hope to equal. 
These two associations, acting in harmony, work with cumulative 
power. They prompt each other to fresh endeavor, and by their in- 
tercourse they learn their mutual relations and interdependence. 

Similar organizations exist among other branches of productive in- 
dustry. Such are the Iron and Steel Association of the United States, 
and the National Tobacco Association. 

There is surely no good reason why those engaged in the production 
and manufacture of cotton should alone refuse to avail themselves of 
this great means of influence and progress, i No other single industrial 
interest in the country can compare with this in the amount of capital 
invested, in the number of persons it employs directly and indirectly, 
in the number of consumers of its products, in its commercial impor- 
tance, in its geographical extent, or in its seeming contrariety yet 
mutual interdependence of interests. A few facts will illustrate these 
points.. They are taken from the census of 1860, as the latest oflicial 
authority, and from the commercial statistics of that year. Though, 
owing to temporary causes the production of later years has not 



l2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

equalled that of 1860, these figures are none the less suitable for our 
purpose that they present not only a history of the past but an incen- 
tive for the future. 

The United States produced, in 1860, 2,155,000,000 pounds of cotton, 
worth at 12 cts. per pound, $258,600,000. The production of wool, dur- 
ing the same year, was 60,250,000 pounds, worth at 50 cts. per pound, 
$30,125,000, the quantity being in the proportion of thirty-five and two- 
thirds pounds of cotton to one pound of wool, and the value in the pro- 
portion of eight dollars to one dollar. 

No statistics are to be found of the amount of capital invested in the 
cultivation of cotton. $98,585,269 was invested in its manufacture. 
This was more than three times the amount invested in the manufac- 
ture of wool, and nearly ten per cent of the whole manufacturing cap- 
ital of the country. The number of persons employed in the cultiva- 
tion of cotton is not reported. It is variously estimated at from eight 
to twelve hundred thousand, with a large addition of women and chil- 
dren in the picking season. The number of persons employed in the 
manufacture of cotton was 122,000, or about three times the number 
employed in the manufacture of wool, and more than nine per cent of 
the whole number of manufacturing operatives in the country. When 
to these are added the immense number of persons who find employ- 
ment in the purchase and sale and in the transportation by land and by 
sea of the raw material and the manufactured product, with those who 
are engaged in providing food and clothing and otherwise ministering 
to the necessities of all these laborers, it will be seen that a large 
share of our population is directly or indirectly dependent upon cotton 
for their support. 

1,148,000,000 yards of cotton goods were made in the United States 
in 1860, being more than nine times the quantity of woolen goods 
made. In this manufacture 438,000,000 pounds of raw cotton was used, 
including 15,000,000 pounds used in woolen mills. The value of this 
cotton was $58,500,000. The quantity of wool consumed during the 
same time was 83,500,000 pounds, worth $35,500,000, the proportion 
being, in quantity, as five and one-eighth pounds of cotton to one of 
wool, and, in value, as one and five-eighths dollars to one dollar. The 
value of the cotton goods manufactured was $116,000,000, or 87 per 
cent more than the value of the woolen goods made. The commercial 
importance of cotton is indicated not only by the aggregates of 
production just given, but likewise by the amount of the exports. 
1,768,000,000 pounds of cotton was exported in 1860, of an estimated 
value of $192,000,000, and cotton goods were exported of the value of 
$11,000,000, the whole equalling fifty-four and one-half per cent of 
the whole value of the exports of the country. 

The production of cotton and cotton goods is more widely ex- 
tended than that of anything else unless it be possibly wool and 
woolens. Cotton growing is the staple industry of the South, while 
its manufacture is carried on in every part of the Union. Birect per- 
sonal intercourse cannot be kept up among the individual members of 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 13 

an industry thus widely scattered. Their general interests can only be 
watched and guarded by an association. There is always danger that 
the harmony of such a widely diffused class may be disturbed. Busi- 
ness rivalry, local and sectional jealousies, the apparent contrariety of 
interests of producer and consumer, all tend to discord. 

It is only from a broad outlook, such as our National Association 
offers, that it can be seen that all these varied and seemingly conflict- 
ing interests are closely intertwined ; that for North and South alike 
it is needful that the cotton grower shall have every facility which 
abundant labor and improved implements and methods of culture can 
give; and that he shall have an ample return for the capital and 
labor invested ; that for North and South alike it is equally needful 
that cotton shall be produced here so abundantly and so cheaply, that 
we shall undersell the world, and again have the first place in the 
world's markets. From such an outlook, too, it can be seen that it is 
for the interest of all, that the manufacture of cotton shall thrive in 
all our States, that the home markets shall be built up, and that the 
time be hastened when, no longer content with clothing our own peo- 
ple, and sending abroad the raw material for the rest of the world to 
work up, a large share of our exports shall be in the form of yarns 
and cloths made at the very gates of the cotton fields. 

While the considerations adduced show the value and need of such an 
organization of the cotton interest as this Association was designed to 
be, it is not to be hoped that it shall be exempt from the difficulties 
and dangers that beset all such organizations. It is always difli- 
^ cult to keep up the interest and secure the needful support for these 
voluntary associations. In some emergency, when the sources of a 
city's trade are threatened by an aggressive rival, or when evil coun- 
sels or unwise legislation endanger its life from within, its ablest men 
may, for the time, use its Board of Trade or Chamber of Commerce, 
and give it a generous support. So when a great industrial irfterest has 
been mismanaged by friends or attacked by foes, or is in danger from 
the neglect or the unwise attention of the Government, its friends and 
dependents will rally to its support, and by combination and the free 
expenditure^ of time and money, tide over the emergency. Yet when 
the pressure of immediate danger is lifted, the same men will neglect 
and starve to death or utter feebleness the organizations which, under 
their wise direction and support, might save them from such a crisis. 
In times of peace they let the ramparts crumble, and the weapons 
n»st. Through all the sunny months of summer and autumn the 
water in their reservoirs is low, and they forget till spring freshets 
come the need of looking after the waste-wears. 

Presuming that those who, fourteen months ago, met to form this 
Association, will not now desert their enterprise ere yet it is fairly 
matured, it will be well at the opening of a new year to lay down a 
few points as to our future efforts. In the call of the Convention to 
form this Association, the' objects sought were briefly stated : 



14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

/ The first object was "to observe legislation on questions afifecting 
this branch of industry with constant attention, and to use all proper 
influences to guard against enactments detrimental to our interests, 
as well as to promote such as may appear right and beneficial." 

The great needs of this, as of every branch of industry in this 
respect, is that legislation shall throw no obstacles in the way of pro- 
duction, that it shall afi'ord all reasonable encouragement to effort, 
and above all things else, that it shall be simple and uniform and con- 
stant, so that cotton growers and cotton manufacturers shall know 
what are the laws relating to their special interests, and shall have 
confidence that those laws will not be changed arbitrarily with each 
new Congress. During the past year, though a close watch upon 
legislation has been kept, no occasion has arisen for action on our 
part. Within the last two years, however, two notable instances will 
occur to all, in which the action of an association like this would 
have been of great help, and in which, for want of such an organiza- 
tion, extraordinary efi"orts had to be made by individuals, and heavy 
expense of time and money incurred by them to secure legislation 
which was for the benefit of the whole cotton industry, and of the 
whole country. These were the repeal of the excise tax on cotton, 
and of the tax on manufactures. Similar emergencies may arise at 
any time. Our legislators, many of them, know little of the wants or 
claims of any particular branch of industry. They are selected for 
other qualifications ; they are changed so frequently that many of 
them never acquire the knowledge and experience which will secure 
enlightened legislation. When questions arise involving the interests 
of cotton growers and workers, they must act in the dark or they 
must be instructed by those who have a knowledge of the subject 
and an interest in its treatment. If no association existed, individual 
planters or manufacturers would have to go before them at heavy cost, 
and there would be danger either that these persons would secure 
their private interests at the expense of those of their neighbors, or 
that through fear of such a result their efi'orts would be vain to pre- 
vent harmful, or to secure beneficent legislation. This Association 
can save its members from either of these alternatives. Speaking for 
the whole cotton industry, and a constituency extending throughout 
the Union, it can have no local or petty interests, and it will be recog- 
nized and welcomed as a trustworthy source of information and of 
counsel. 

^ The second object of the Association is to collate, digest, aatid 
disseminate among the members accurate statistical information in 
relation to the growth and manufacture of cotton. 

In the statistical department much remains to be done. The manu- 
facturing statistics which have been collected, while believed to be 
very valuable, are yet exceedingly imperfect. They give the average 
annual consumption of cotton in the mills. The actual amount, how- 
ever, is continually fluctuating, influenced by the price of the raw 
material, the demand for goods, and various other causes. We need 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 15 

a report made up each year, or better yet, each six, or three months, 
of the actual consumption, based upon direct returns from each mill. 
Such a report could not have been procured when the Association 
began its work. We did nftt even know to whom to apply for it, and 
had we known, we had not established our claim to the confidence of 
the manufacturing community. Now, at great labor and expense, we 
have secured a list of all the manufacturers, and we must have satis- 
fied them that their confidential communications can be safely entrusted 
to our hands, and that they will be so used as to benefit all and each of 
the manufacturers of the land. As yet this Association has completed 
no arrangements for the collection of crop statistics, though it has 
demonstrated the incompleteness and unreliability of those which 
have been heretofore accepted. Some system is needed by which 
returns can be obtained both of the cotton which passes through the 
cotton ports, and likewise of that large and constantly increasing 
amount which reaches the mills and the northern markets by interior 
routes. No individual can establish such a system so well as an 
association. Suspicion of pecuniary interest will attach to all private 
sources of information, and indeed without such pecuniary interest, it 
cannot be expected that any individual will devote to the work the 
time and money and care that it demands. Nor can any private per- 
son easily find trustworthy agents at all the points where inquiry 
must be made. An association, however, will have its members at 
every part of the field, and its local officers to supervise its Avork. In 
^order, however, to facilitate this work and anticipate the returns based 
upon the deliveries and transportation of cotton, there should be 
another set of agencies established through the cotton growing States. 
In each county or cluster of counties, there should be an agent who 
can furnish, at the close of the planting season, a statement of the 
number of acres planted, and then from time to time make a report of 
the state of the crops, and of their actual outturn until the close of 
the picking season. Such reports from trustio^orthy agents would be 
very valuable in themselves, and likewise as a means of corroborating 
or correcting those obtained of the cotton in transit. 

Some time would be required to develop such a system of 
agencies. This Association has, however, the best basis upon which 
to organize them. According to its By-Laws, its Vice Presidents 
shall be elected one from each State, — "said Vice Presidents to 
be chairmen of the auxiliary State organizations which may be 
formed subordinate to this Association in their respective States." 
So fast as the auxiliary State organizations, contemplated in this 
provision, are established and brought into working condition, we 
may hope, through their local officers, to secure the infonnation desired. 
As yet but one such auxiliary has been organized, the "Planters, Man- 
ufacturers, and Mechanics Association of the State of Mississippi," 
of which our Vice President for that State, Col. James M. Wesson, is 
the President. A copy of its Articles of Association and of the Pro- 
ceedings of its first two meetings, is herewith communicated, and is 



16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



special!}^ commended to the notice of members from cotton growing 
States. Others of our Vice Presidents in the cotton growing States 
have had similar action in contemplation, but owing to various causes 
their movements have been delayed. • 

The third general object of the organization is " to promote the 
cultivation of cotton in our country, and a recognition of the identity 
of interests between the cotton planters and manufacturers," 

The increased production of cotton for export in India and elsewhere, 
which was induced by the stoppage of the supply from this country 
during the late war, has continued under the stimulus of the high 
prices which, with little intermission, have been maintained since the 
war closed. The supply from this country has not yet regained its 
former limits, while the manufacturing demand has rapidly increased 
throughout the world, the number of spindles having increased in this 
country thirty-five per cent since 1860, and in Great Britain and on the 
continent of Europe in probably an equal ratio. The following figures 
indicate the relative position of this country as a source of cotton 
supply. 

In 1860 the United States supplied 84^ per cent of the whole import 
of cotton into Great Britain ; in 1866 they supplied 38 per cent ; in 1867, 
42| per cent ; and in 1868, 43J per cent ; the crop of the United States 
being for these years respectively, as follows : — 

1859-60 4,675,770 bales. 

1865-6 2,342,116 „ 

1866-7 2,318,660 „ 

1867-8 2,599,241 „ 

This falling ofi" is to be attributed in part to a succession of unfavor- 
able seasons, in part to the short supply of labor, and its temporary 
disorganization. 

These causes of decline are but temporary. Propitious seasons will, 
no doubt, again cheer the* heart of the cotton grower. Labor will be 
reorganized on the new basis which the social changes of the past six 
years have made necessary, and the farmers of the South will make 
more cotton to the acre and to the hand than the planters heretofore 
have made. Still for a longtime to come the call for more labor will 
be importunate. The activity of the South, no longer concentrated in 
the single channel of cotton culture, will press into new and varied in- 
dustries. Manufacturing and mechanical establishments will spring 
up through the country, gathering the people into villages, making in- 
creased demands upon the farmers for food crops, supporting store- 
keepers and other tradesmen. These villages will attract the lazy and 
the pleasure-loving. They will attract too a better class by the advan- 
tages they will ofi'er for the education of the people and their children. 
Many men and more women and children have been drawn, and will 
continue to be drawn from the fields, and their places must be supplied. 

To regain our ascendency in the cotton markets we must be able to 
lay down cotton in Europe at 6d or less per pound. With cheap cotton 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 17 

the demand for cotton goods, now checked by the absolute want of 
means to buy, will be greatly stimulated. The spindles of the world 
will be hard driven, and their number will be rapidly increased. New 
demands for cotton will be made, and for the labor to grow it. Our 
great duty now is to encourage emigration to the cotton regions. 
This Association and its officers can hardly be more usefully employed 
than -in collecting and diffusing information in regard to the demand for 
labor, and to the advantages and inducements which different sections 
offer to immigrants. 

Besides promoting the introduction of a working population into the 
Cotton States, we ought also to encourage the use of improved imple- 
ments and processes. Ignorant unpaid laborers could not use these, 
but educated farmers can and must have them. It is one of the most 
satisfactory signs of promise that the use of fertilizers and of labor- 
saving tools in the cotton fields is so rapidly increasing. At the 
meeting of the Government of the Association, in Baltimore, very 
interesting statements were made by gentlemen who had traveled 
through the Cotton States, and who had extensive correspondence in 
all of them, all going to show not only that the use of these helps was 
increasing, but also that through their use cotton had been raised, the 
past year, at a cost upon a gold standard, little if anything above the 
rates before the war. 

The promotion of a recognition of the identity of interests between 
the cotton planters and manufacturers is the last stated, but perhaps 
the leading object of this Association. All that is needed to secure 
such a recognition is that there should be a more general acquaintance, 
and a fuller and more frequent interchange of opinions among the 
members of these classes. Such acquaintance and interchange are 
promoted by the meetings which the Association and its Government 
hold from time to time, and by the circulation of its reports. Our 
meetings have not all been very largely attended, but they have brought 
together representatives of the different interests, and they have 
elicited interesting and valuable discussions. 

Another means of securing cooperation between the cotton planters 
and manufacturers is through the establishment of auxiliary associa- 
tions. The value of such associations to this end can hardly be over- 
estimated, but it need not be further noticed here, as allusion has 
already been made to it in another connection. 

It remains only to suggest, in this connection, the value of that 
direct personal communication which the Association, through its 
officers, and especially through its Secretary, who alone is expected to 
devote his whole time to this service, can hold with cotton growers 
and manufacturers. Already an extensive correspondence has been 
opened with leading men in all the States. Information and sugges- 
tions of importance are continually being received and sent out again. 
Circumstances have prevented hitherto the Secretary from personally 
visiting the Cotton States and our members there, though he has grate- 
fully to acknowledge the receipt of pressing invitations from several 

3 



18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

quarters. It would give him great gratification, and he believes be not 
without good results to the Association, if the opportunity should offer 
of carrying out this purpose during the coming year. 

On motion of Mr. IS'ichols, of Ehode Island, 
seconded by Mr. Gaksed, of Pennsylvania, the 
report was accepted and ordered to be printed. 

In the absence of the Teeasuker, his report 
was read by the Secretary. On motion of Mr. 
Nichols the report was accepted and ordered to 
be placed on file. 

The President then called for the reports of 
Standing Committees. 

eeport of finance committee. 

Mr. Ward, of Massachusetts, presented the 
report of the Finance Committee, as follows : 

The Receipts for the year have been as follows : — 

Admission Fees from Members f 1050.00 

Annual Assessment from Mills 4,203.97 

,, „ ,, Planters and others, 160.00 

15,413.97 

There has been paid out as follows : — 

Preliminary Convention, in 1868 817.30 

Government Meetings 249.65 

On Secretary's Salary 2,175.00 

Furniture 55.75 

Printing 1031.51 . 

stationary 174.98 

Postage 388.37 

Travelling Expenses of Secretary .... 273.95 

Office Expenses 213.08 5,379.59 

Leaving a Balance in Treasury of $34.38 

Amount due from Members — 

Admission Fees 140.00 

Assessments 385.00 485.00 

The Association is indebted as follows : — 

National Association Wool Mfrs. Rent . . . 275.00 

Secretary, balance of Salary 700.00 

Printing 78.25 

Stationary and Office Expenses 16.75 

Expenses of Annual Meeting 80.00 

$1150.00 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. . 19 

Making the aggregate cost of organizing the Association, and of keep- 
ing it up for fourteen montlis, $6,529. Of tliis sum $1,150 is now clue. 
There is $34.38 in the treasury, and $485 due from members of the 
Association. 

The expenses for the ensuing year will depend very much upon 
the work done and ground covered by the Association. To carry out 
the work of the past year, we shall need to retain the valuable services 
of our Secretary. We shall have to hire and furnish a new office, also. 
The rooms which the Association has been occupying must be vacated 
on 1st July. Others must therefore be procured at once. This we 
deem essential. The Secretary must be where he can be found, and 
must have a suitable place in which to keep the records and documents 
of the Association, where information can be received and imparted, 
where the collection of cotton samples described in the Appendix to 
our first Report can be placed for safe keeping and exhibition, and 
where a collection of samples of manufactured goods can be gathered. 
It should be a place, too, to which cotton planters and manufacturers 
will be attracted by the means of information afforded, and by the 
opportunity given of meeting and exchanging opinions with those 
of similar interests. We must, too, continue to collect, print, and 
circulate valuable information. 

If we do all this, our expenses for the coming year will be from 
$6,000 to $7,000, a small amount to raise if every one who is interested 
ill the success of the Association, and who will be benefited thereby 
will pay his share. 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON STATISTICS. 

The report of the Committee on Statistics, in 
the absence of the Chairman, Mr. Nourse, of 
Massachusetts, was read by the Secretary, as 
follows : •* 

At the meeting of the Government, held in Baltimore, Feb. 10, 1869, 
the Statistical Report embraced returns from 750 cotton mills. The 
Secretary has since gathered in returns from 44 mills, having 116,474 
spindles, and using 16,926,112 pounds cotton per year, — equal to 
145,32 pounds per spindle. 

A summary of the entire returns so far received gives the following 
results : * 



Northern Stales . 
Southern States . 


Hills. 

. 693 
. 101 

. 794 


Av. No. Pounds Cotton 
Spindles. Yarn. Spun per year. 

6,452,974 27| 398,433,133 
247,583 12| 35,860,750 

6,700,557 27i 434,293,883 


Average 
pr. Spindle. 

61.46 
144.60 


Cotton other- 
wise used, lbs. 

11,260,700 


Total.. . . . 


64.82 


11,260,700 






*See Appendix A. 







20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

From information received in answer to extended and careful in- 
quiries throughout the United States, the Secretary malies the follow- 
ing estimate of the cotton mills from which returns have not been 
received, and of cotton used by them : — 

Mills. Spindles. Cotton used, lbs. 

In Northern States . 43 50,000 3,184,340 

In Southern States . 7 13,000 2,064,590 

50 63,000 5,248,930 lbs. cotton spun. 

" Cotton otherwise used " in mills . . . 14,000,000 

Cotton consumed, but not reported (est'd) 19,248,930 pounds. 

Total Consitmption in year 1867-8. 

North, known 409,693,833 

Estimated 17,184,340 

426,878,173 

South, known 35,860,750 

Estimated 2,064,590 

37,925,340 

464,803,513 
Deduct for exceptional cases (in which the quantity re- 
ported is the usual consuming capacity, and not the 
actual consumption) 14,803,513 

Total consumption in the mills , ..... .450,000,000 

These later and almost complete returns give a satisfactory con- 
firmation of the statistical report of the home consumption of cot- 
ton, presented at the February meeting. 

Looking back to 1st September last, the beginning of the present 
cotton season, we have to note a large consumption of cotton during 
the first four months, owing to an enlarged production of cotton bags, 
drills, duck, sheetings, and other heavy goods. During and after 
January, the demand for heavy goods fell ofi", even with reduced prices, 
enforcing a material contraction in the production of those fabrics. 
Hence the consumption of cotton for the last eight months of the 
cotton year will have been considerably lighter than during the first 
four months. The aggregate for the whole year is believed to be less 
than for the year preceding; but this can be determined only by 
renewed returns from the mills, to be made at the close of the season, 
31st August. 

The commercial and manufacturing world has come to recognize the 
statistics of this Association, collected and collated by its Secretary 
from the actual and nearly complete returns of the entire cotton manu- 
facturing power of the country, as interesting and valuable. They are 
the first reliable data ever obtained covering the same ground. They 
serve to confirm or correct the other and general cotton statistics of 
the country, in respect of the home consumption, and so far are found 
to be useful in the statistics of the commerce and manufactures of the 
world. 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 21 

At the time when our annual meeting occurs it is most difficult to 
present a report which shall satisfactorily discuss the two important 
features of supply and demand and their relations, without venturing 
upon the domain of conjecture, in violation of our rule to deal only with 
known facts. Whatever may be the appearance and promise of the 
growing cotton crop at the close of June, we are reminded by the old 
saying of planters, "July determines the crop," how great may be 
the change in the ensuing sixty days. Estimates of the outturn made 
now by men having the most experience and best information are of 
no value. No statement of either the possiblities or probabilities, 
affirmative or negative, should be regarded. 

The supplies for the coming year to be contributed by other parts of 
the world are equally unknown. 

The rate of consumption is so much influenced by price ; the ranges 
of which, higher or lower, cannot be foreseen, that beyond the immediate 
future its consideration also must be rejected as futile. 

We are thus limited to the present year, — the facts of that portion 
past, and the apparent facts for the remainder, reaching to 1st Septem- 
ber as the end of the regular cotton year, but to the 1st October as the 
period up to which our mills must be supplied without help from the 
new crop. Accepting as correct the figures found in the weekly circu- 
lar of the New York Board of Cotton Brokers, from which to state the 
crop movements since Sept. 1, 1868, we find, — 

Stocks in the ports, Sept. 1, 1868 38,000 bales. 

Receipts at the ports to last mail dates (June 18) . 2,062,000 

Total supply, at ports, to June 18 2,100,000 ,, 

Deduct foreign exports, to June 18 . . . 1,402,000 
Stocks in port, ,, „ . . . 95,000 

1,497,000 „ 

Taken from the ports by Northern spinners .... 603,000 
Add receipts overland to mills, to April 24 ... . 241,000 
jj >j ,, ,, April 24 to June 18 (est'd) 6,000 ,, 

Total taken fi-om this crop by Northern spinners, 

since Sept. 1, 1868 850,000 „ 

According to the returns made from the mills for 1867-8, the Northern 
consumption, that year, did not exceed about 900,000 bales. It is sup- 
posed, as before stated, that the consumption this year is less, owing 
to the reduced production of heavy goads. We do not venture to 
accept as fact, however, the inference from the above figures, that the 
Northern mills require to buy less than 50,000 bales to run up to 
15th October, 1869, which would complete the year for which supplies 
began to be received at mills, about Oct. 15, 1868, because it does not 
satisfactorily appear that the supply in hand, supplemented by the 
50,000 bales, will extend so far. The common impression is that 
the supply held by the mills on the 18th June will extend (at present 



22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

rate of use) only to about August 20 or 25, and that a further supply of 
130,000 to 140,000 bales is required to run up to " new cotton," say 
15th October. 
Assume the want for home use up to 15th October to be 

the maximum, say 140,000 bales. 

And that there shall be a further export of .... . 25,000 ,, 

Total 165,000 „ 

Whence is it to come? Can it be supplied? 

The stock in all the ports, June 18, was 90,000 ,, 

To come in before 1st September, including inland 

stocks, (estimated) 30,000 ,, 

In transitu from South, June 18 21,000 ,, 

141,000 „ 
Portion of receipts at ports to 1st October (estimated 

at 50,000 bales), available for mills before Oct. 15, 37,000 „ 

Supply 178,000 „ 

If the stock in the ports 1st September, and in the mills 15th 
October, be assumed to be the same as last year, we find there is an 
apparent supply for the maximum want, and a surplus over, in pro 
forma statement, which bespeaks of the future only an ordinary 
minimum of supply, to cover a maximum of want. 

While this indicates a full supply, it exhibits a surplus too small to 
afi'ord that choice of qualities essential to the profitable working of a 
cotton mill. This small unappropriated supply could be easily con- 
trolled by speculation but for the hard fact that at the present price 
(32j^ @ 33c for middling cotton) there is an actual loss in producing 
nearly all the common and standard varieties of cotton goods. This 
will enforce further stopping of machinery. It would be well for 
manufacturers generally, if a large portion of the -manufacturing 
power shall be stopped through mosf of the hot months of July and 
August. 

The spindles and looms of Europe are further from the cotton fields, 
and a longer time is required for the transportation of their supplies. 
Looking therefore to October 1, the period of the annual making up of 
the cotton statement for all Europe, the chief elements which enter 
into the supply for that period are now visible, and calculations can be 
made which will be approximately safe. 

Let us consider Great Britain alone. From January 1 to June 10, 23 
weeks : 

The deliveries for home use were 1,178,000 bales or 51,200 per week, 
„ ,, export „ 172,000 „ 7,500 „ 

From Liverpool . . . 1,155,000 

From London, &c. . . 195,000 

Total 1,350,000 „ 58,700 „ 

The total deliveries from Liverpool alone were 50,000 bales per week. 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 23 

The following prospective statement /or Liverpool is composed prin- 
cipally of ascertained or stated facts, such as " Stock on hand," " Cotton 
at sea," with the exception of some minor quantities set down as 
probable, such as the imports from Brazil, Egypt, West Indies, &c., 
which, taken as last year for same time, are all understated, if we may 
credit the recent advices of probable imports in excess of last year. 

Stock of cotton in Liverpool, June 10 435,400 bales. 

Estimated imports : — 

From the United States, at sea. June 5 . . 80,000 

Cleared since June 5 . . . . 20,000 

To clear before Sept. 1 . . . 25,000 45,000 

125,000 
From E. Indies, at sea, May 15 . 456,000 
Cleared before June 1 . . . . 44,000 

500,000 

Brazil, same as last year 195,000 

Egypt „ „ 9,000 

West Indies and others, same as last year . 37,600 866,600 bales. 

Total supply 1,302,000 bales. 

The deliveries from Liverpool during the first 23 weeks 
of 1869, were 50,000 per week. That included a large 
trade demand for some weeks, and now the trade 
demand is much less. But there are indications of a 
large export demand in future. Assume, then, an in- 
crease of deliveries to 52,000 bales per week, for the 
next 16 weeks 832,000 

It would leave on hand, in Liverpool, October 1, 1869, 470,000 bales, 
against 424,000 October 1, 1868, whereas on the 10th June the stock 
was 217,000 less than at same date in 1868. This shows a large falling 
ofi" in the deliveries for consumption and export. It is further shown 
in the trade statement* of exports of plain and colored cotton goods 
from London, Liverpool, and the Clyde, to the East Indies and China. 

The quantity for the whole year 1866, was 825,431,905 yards. 

1867, „ 1,066,814,613 „ 

1868, „ 1,207,528,233 „ 

an increase from 1866 to 1868 of nearly 50 per cent. Whereas, the 
exports of those goods from the same ports to the same countries 

^ were for the first five months of 1868 497,955,000 yards, 

and „ „ „ 1869 only . . . 387,233,000 „ 

a falling ofi" equal to 22| per cent, and we are assured both by trade 
circulars and by a comparison of the prices of raw cotton with the 
prices of cotton fabrics, that the business has left an average loss to 
spinners, manufacturers, and exporters, during the last five or six 
months^ . 

* Of Messrs. George Fbazar, Son, & Co., of Manchester. 



24 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

The consumption of cotton on the continent of Europe has not 
varied materially from that of the previous year. Their direct impor- 
tations have been larger, and they have taken less from England. 

Up to October the manufacturing world has a visible and probable 
existing supply of cotton, larger than last year, with which to meet a 
smaller consumption. The result promised is a larger aggregate stock 
on the first of October next. What shall follow thereafter must depend 
upon the crops now growing, and the ability of the world to consume 
their products at the prices for which they shall be offered in market. 
These points will be more plainly seen at the date of our October 
report. The production of goods both at home and in Europe has 
been largely curtailed, in certain styles, during the past four months. 
There is no serious accumulation of any of them except in the Eastern 
markets. Under the reduced supply a demand, arising from necessity, 
must soon come. If production be kept in check until the probable 
outturn of the growing cotton and grain crops shall be visible, a de- 
mand equal to that minimum production will probably prevail under the 
least favorable harvest; while it cannot be doubted that large abundant 
crops will create a demand for both cotton goods and raw cotton, which 
will renew the largest activities of trade and manufacture. 

On motion of Mr. Lippitt, of Khode Island, the 
report was referred to the Executive Committee, 
with authority to print. 

NEW MACHINERY. 

Upon a call for the report of the Committee on 
Machinery, Mr. Garsed said, 

I understood from our Secretary, that Mr. Lockwood, the 
Chairman of the Committee, would make a report, and of 
course I have prepared nothing. In his absence, I will only say 
that the bright feature in our business is the total repudiation 
by manufacturers of the old-fashioned machinery. Five or six 
years ago the manufacturers were very anxious to buy cheap 
machinery, without much regard to its quality or productive 
capacity, trusting to their skill and energy to secure a good re- 
sult. Now, if a person has any old machinery he finds it very 
difficult to sell it, and in some cases almost impossible to give 
it away. 

There is nothing strikingly new in machinery. Mr. Lock- 
wood is now engaged in some experiments in dressing and pre- 
paring the warp for the loom by a different method from that 
in use in New England. I hoped he would have made a report 
to-day. 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 25 

Mr. Ward : I would say for Mr. Lockwood that he fully 
expected to be here and to make a report, but he is detained 
by unavoidable business at home. 

The President called on Mr. Horribes', an- 
other member of the Committee, who also stated 
that he had come unprepared to report, under- 
standing that Mr. Lockwood would be ready to 
do so. 

Mr. LiPPITT : I should like to state some fjicts in regard 
to the new slasher. It was my privilege to visit, not long ago, 
a mill of 600 looms, which had run for ten weeks with one 
slasher, where formerly they had used ten dressers. They were 
doing their entire dressing with one man and two half-grown 
boys, at a cost of about five dollars a day. The cost of doing 
their dressing before was about thirty dollars a day, that is, 
from $2.50 to $3.00 a day each to ten dresser-tenders, and $2.50 
to a superintendent of the dressing-room. It takes no more 
power to run a slasher doing this enormous work than to run 
one dresser with its accompanying Ian. A dresser takes from 
one and a half to two horse-power to run it, and you can readily 
estimate the saving of power, of room, and of fuel. The saving 
of the health of the operatives is an item which can hardly be 
estimated. 

These facts came under my observation in an accidental visit 
to one of the mills in a neighboring town. The result was so 
conclusive that I immediately ordered a slasher, and concluded 
to throw away fourteen new dressers that I had just paid $850 
a piece for. 

REPORT OF VICE-PRESIDENT WESSON. 

The President called on .Vice President 
Wesson, of Mississippi, for a report. 

As Vice-President of Mississippi, I beg leave to report, tliat I have 
organized a State Association auxiliary to j^ours, with the following 
provisions in relation to county associations : 

The State is divided into ten districts, and a Vice-President ap- 
pointed in each, who is to organize an association in each county in 
his district. Each county is to be divided into sub-districts, with a 
committee on statistics in each sub-district which is required to report 
in May the area planted, in July the seasons and casualties, and in 

4 



26 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

September the prospects and probable yield. The State Association 
has appointed the 4th Tuesday in October, for the Annual Meeting, 
State Fair, and General Exhibition. Under this call many of the 
counties have organized, and there is a general waking-up to the 
agricultural and manufacturing interests of the State. As best 
I could, with my limited acquaintance, in Georgia, Alabama, and 
Louisiana, I have thrown broad-jcast the good seed, which I hope may 
be like bread cast upon the waters. The area planted in cotton in my 
district, Louisiana, and Texas, the other States being equal, will pro- 
duce at least 2| millions bales, provided the season shall be good for 
raising and gathering the crop. The cotton lands in the Cotton States 
not planted would produce, with the liberal use of fertilizers, improved 
agricultural implements, and scientific cultivation, thirty millions bales 
a year, or enough to supply the wants of the world for the next thirty 
years. We have the land and the climate, but we lack the labor. The 
manufacturer of the East is as much interested in emigration to 
the South as the cotton planter of Mississippi, the profits of each being 
measured by the standard of the cotton crop. We invite emigration 
to our cotton fields, from every land and nation. We want labor to 
restore our waste places, and fructify our virgin soil. We want labor 
to increase the production of cotton. The* millions and hundreds of 
millions of Government bonds held abroad will mature and must be 
paid— they must be paid in cotton. The market for bread-stufis is un- 
reliable for that immense amount, and the amount of gold is in- 
sufficient. We cannot spare the gold; it is not here, it would bankrupt 
the hills of California to pay these bonds in gold and keep up the 
balance of exchange. We have no minerals, no created wealth, nor 
products but cotton that we can rely upon to pay this immense foreign 
debt, and at the same time maintain our balance of foreign exchange, 
and we should, as wise statesmen, commence now to prepare our lands 
and procure our labor to raise the amount necessary to that end. I re- 
peat, the amount of the National debt held abroad created a like amount 
of exchange, by its transfer, and it will require an equal amount, with 
the millions of interest added to it, to bring it back, which must be done 
at maturity, and we possess nothing and produce nothing that we can 
rely upon for that purpose but the cotton crop, and we should now 
provide a sinking fund in land and labor equal to the emergency. ( The 
introduction of labor to manipulate our fleecy fields is one of great 
importance to all, but we of the South are more immediately interested, 
in the introduction of skilled labor. We want the artisan, the 
mechanic, and the manufacturer. We want the Yankee skill and 
enterprise, the Yankee industry and economy, and last, but not least, 
we want Yankee capital to develop our mineral and manufacturing 
Wealth. The natural advantages of the South over the North, for 
manufacturing especially the coarser fabrics, are very many. We 
know that we are wanting in the skill and economy of the Yankee, but 
if we can induce him to come and live with us, we will learn much of 
his skill and practise some of his economy. We will oifer hmi every 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 27 

inducement to make our home his home. Our raih-oads offer to 
transport him and his family at one cent a mile passage, and his bed 
and bag-gage thrown in for good weight. Any capitalist seeking in- 
vestment among our people, and making known the object of his visit, 
can travel free of charge on all railroads, and be accompanied by one 
or more gentlemen as guides, and will never be asked his political sen- 
timents. It was once made known that a heavy capitalist would leave 
New York at a particular time. He was met at Columbus, Ky., with a 
special train, which was placed under his control in order that he 
might make the trip to Mobile, Alabama, 470 miles, in daylight and 
stop at any and all places, at discretion. He was accompanied by a 
number of gentlemen on his southern tour: at New Orleans he again 
had a special train at his command, which conveyed him and his escort 
over the district formerly known as the State of Mississippi and up into 
Tenrressee. This may sound strange to you who have heard so much 
about the safety of loyal men in the South. It is my duty so far as my 
district is concerned, to disabuse your minds of all such designing 
falsehoods. We have four men in our mill who emigrated south since 
the war. One held a high commission in the Federal army. Each 
and all of them now hold office appointed by what is called rebel or dis- 
loyal influence. 

To manufacture the coarser fabrics of the South in which less skill is 
required we have many advantages over the East. In the interior, where 
I live, we buy seed cotton about three cents less, and cotton in the 
bale one and a half less than it is worth at the seaboard. The eastern 
manufacturer has to paj^ this and nearly two cents more in freight and 
expenses to get the cotton to his mill, besides a loss in baling, iron 
ties, and a heavy accumulation of dirt, say an average of 4 cts, a pound 
on cotton, or 25 per cent, when cotton is 16 cts. Our labor, unskilled, 
it is true, costs us less because of its redundancy, because also of 
cheap food, and also because of cheap rents, or rather no rents at all, 
and as land is so cheap every family has vegetables all the year. Build- 
ing-sites cost literally nothing. Fuel costs the same, and has to be 
used but three or four months in the year. Board is much cheaper 
with us, partly in consequence of cheap vegetables and cheap beef 
— good beef in market costs from 8 to 10 cents. / 

The same skill and labor at the South that is used in the East can be 
made to produce a much finer yarn, for the reason that the climate is 
mild and soft, and the cotton is in its virgin puritj'-, like snow-flakes as 
it falls from the gin. 

To sum it all up ; Eastern skill operated at the South can make 25 
per cent more profit than in the East, and can produce a finer yarn than 
has ever been made on this continent, or as fine as can be made on 
the globe. The Yankees have taken the premium in the world's exhi- 
bition of mechanic arts, and they can do so in the manufacture of the 
finest y;irns and fabrics, if they will but apply their skill at the South, 
where the climate harmonises with their objects, and where the pure 
snow-flake fibre as it falls froni the gin, aids in their purpose, 



28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

Mr. WeSSO]^: This report was written to be road to a 
working, not a talking company. 

In explanation of the statement that seed cotton is better 
than bale or lint cotton, I would say that we gin the seed 
cotton ourselves and save the toll for ginning, the packing, the 
rope, and the labor of putting it up. A man can make with 
four mules and two men $30 or $40 a day ginning, and that the 
manufacturer who buys his cotton in the seed, saves. We buy, 
too, on the average, two cents a pound cheaper than at the sea- 
board. 

I don't suppose cotton is to remain at 30 or '25 cents a pound. 
I suppose it will come down to 16 cents in a year or two. If 
you will help us introduce labor we can put it down. 

On motion of Mr. Mudge, the report was ac- 
cepted and referred to the Executive Committee, 
with authority to print. 

TARE AND FALSE PACKING. 

The President: The next report in order would be 
that of the Committee on Tare and False Packing. I do not 
think there is any one here prepared to report. Mr. Batciiel- 
DER, the Chairman of the Committee, is not here, having 
recently met with domestic affliction. 

Mr. GaRSED: I should like to know what Southern gen- 
tlemen here have to say on this question, of all others the most 
serious to the future of the cotton business. I don't believe 
one bale in fifty of "middling" turns out the same inside as 
outside. We are told it is a matter of the overseer and the 
negro, but if we give short measure, it is our fault — no negro, 
no overseer for us. 

You can bring a bale of tow from extreme Russia in better 
condition than you can bring a bale of cotton from anywhere. 
In China or India cotton, one layer does not vary from another 
one-tenth of a grain, and it all has marks inside by which it can 
be traced ; but of the thousands of bales of our cotton I have 
handled since 1861, and I have kept a very close account, 
hardly one per cent has been according to standard, to say 
nothing of the mud and dirt. Now will Col. Wesson let us 
hear from Mississippi ? 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 29 

Col. 'WesSO:N': I cannot defend the cotton planter in 
all things. Indeed, I never defend anything but what I think 
morally right. There is too much truth in what the gentleman 
says about flxlse packing. It is done all around me, but it is 
very hard to catch the offender. I tried last summer, but did 
not succeed. It is a common practice now to wet the cotton 
inside, or to wet a pile of sand, roll it in a fleece of cotton, and 
put that in the middle of the bale. In the cases where I de- 
tected it, the cotton was raised by one man and sent to another 
man's gin, and the negroes put it up there, so we could not 
reach it. But we can create a moral sentiment, Ave can teach 
men that it is for their interest to be honest. I have talked 
and written on this subject, and I intend to bring it up ao-ain 
this fall at our Fair. ° "^ 

There is a remedy which most of you, gentlemen, may ado})t. 
You may buy your cotton in the interior, and save very much 
of the loss, the drayages, the insurance, and commissions to 
which it is subjected in passing thro.ugh the cities. Every time 
it is resold it is resampled, Some of our folks ap^^ly the word 
"stealing" to it, and I don't know- but that it is a good word, 
for it is taken out for the purpose of gain. I have'heard of a 
man who made 600 bales of cotton in one season by sampling. 
If you will employ agents in the interior of the States, you can 
buy cotton directly, and save all the dirt which gets on it by 
rolling in the mud, and all this waste, and by telling them that 
you want but ten pounds of iron put upon it, you may reduce 
that. 

Mr. Saunders, of Tennessee: I should recommend 

to parties to buy their cotton at the seaboard rather than in the 
interior towns. Cotton cannot be examined well unless it is 
bored clear through. The difference of cotton in the same bales 
arises frequently now from there being different varieties in the 
same gin-house. Under the new or squad system of farming, 
each squad puts its cotton by itself in the house, and they gin 
by turns. Under the old system, each grade, first, second, and 
last picking, was ginned separately; now a squad may not have 
enough of either one to make a separate bale, and the different 
kinds are put together. False packing is much more common 
in India than in America. This I could show, if I had time, 
from the reports of the Cotton Supply Association. If you 



30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

bore a bale well you will find if there is wet cotton or too ranch 
trashy cotton in it. 

Col. WeSSOIsT: It is very important, this examining 
deep. They call it "catching the coon," in Georgia, but the 
more directly you deal with the planters the better. If you 
buy the bales of Mr. Smith, in Columbus or Jackson, and it is 
sent right to your mill, and you find it false packed, Mr. Smith's 
honor is touched ; an explanation and reclamation follow. 
When you buy at the seaboard, it has passed through so many 
hands that you can't tell which Mr. Smith is responsible. I 
have opened the past year twenty odd bales of cotton that had 
rolls of sand in the middle, but it had gone through too many 
hands. 1 could not tell which put the sand in. 

Mr. GtARSED: I alluded to China, not India cotton, 

Mr. Saunders: Mr. Garsed will buy no more China 
cotton for many years, if ever. The past season China imported 
from Great Britain 235,000,000 yards of cotton goods, and did 
not export to Great Britain a single pound of cotton. India and 
China jointly imported 1,508,000 bales of cotton goods, and 
did not export over 1,420,000 bales of cotton. 

Mr. JoHNSTON^, of ]^ew York: The honor of this 
Association is somewhat concerned in this matter of tare. 'Jhe 
Knitting Association, representing, perhaps, one-half of the 
knitting machinery of this country, appointed a committee, 
about eight months ago, to circulate petitions among all using 
cotton, asking Congress for some regulations in regard to tare. 
I did not wish to sign the petition because this Association had 
taken the matter in hand, and 1 was certain that its committee 
of substantial, influential men, would present something tangi- 
ble. For this we waited, and now we find the committee have 
no report ; and we are about where we were. Yet it is one of 
the greatest objects of the Association. 

I thank the gentleman from Mississippi for his remarks, 
especially for what he says about wet cotton. We have suf- 
fered to the extent of five per cent on 10,000 bales of cotton, 
or $75,000 in the last eight months from water. How are we 
to find it? It is not like a stone or brick. You cannot get the 
water outj and you cannot send the cotton back when you are 
using it every day. Talk about puncturing cotton to fi.nd out 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETIN.G. 31 

the fratuls ! The cotton which comes by rail is pressed as hard 
as a board, to save transportation. You might succeed in ex- 
amining ten bales, if you employed a man to sample each bale, 
but you cannot expect this where you buy a hundred or a 
thousand bales. The gentlemen from the South know this is a 
great evil, and they are ready to co-operate with us to break it 
down. If we have got to j^ay more on account of the tare 
being taken off, let us know what we buy. Do not let us sup- 
pose we are buying cotton when we are paying for water, or 
ropes, or iron. I am sorry the committee are not ready to re- 
port. I don't like to go back and say the Association has done 
nothing in this matter. 

Mr. !N^ICHOLS: I cordially second the last remarks. 
The Providence Board of Trade, by a unanimous vote, re- 
ferred this subject to a committee to determine the best mode 
of ascertaining the tare, and obtain an enactment from the 
legislature to enable us to buy and sell cotton free from this 
kind of charge. That committee reported that the subject was 
before this Association, and it was inexpedient to anticipate its 
action, as whatever action is taken should be uniform. Now 
we must explain that no action has been taken by this Asso- 
ciation. I know there are causes for the delay, but if these 
causes can be removed, we shall all agree as to the importance 
of giving the subject immediate attention, and of securing the 
cooperation of all consumers' of cotton, for certainly they can 
regulate the thing. 

We labor under an enormous disadvantage. Cotton is put 
up at the South for export, properly and in light bagging. 
When it is put up for a Northern manufacturer, there is the 
strongest temptation to put on as much iron and heavy bagging 
as possible. We want the united action of every Board of 
Trade, and of every community where cotton is used. If New 
York and the New England States can be induced to pass an 
enactment suggested by this Association (and they unquestion- 
ably can be), it will be impossible to sell cotton without de- 
ducting the tare. They cannot get it from the Englishmen, 
and they cannot then get it from us. 

Mr. Ward : It was expected that the Committee would 
have reported last fall. They did make a partial report at the 
October meeting, recommending the passage by the Northern 



32 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

States of a uniform law on the subject. Some gentlemen then 
present from the South, however, begged us not to urge legislative 
action at that time, as it might be regarded as unfriendly in the 
North. They wanted us to give them a little time and they 
would talk the matter up among themselves, legislate upon it, 
and set it all right. Now, if our friends at the South have no 
remedy to propose, I hope that at the next meeting of the 
Government of this Association a bill will be prepared to 
be recommended for the adoption by the several States. 

Mr. GkAHAM, of Alabama: In order to bring this 

matter fairly before the Association, I offer this resolution : 

Hesolued: That this Association recommend to the manufac- 
turers of cotton that after September 1st, 1869, when they ex- 
tend their orders to their agents for cotton, one of the conditions 
of the order shall be that a deduction shall be made for the 
weight of the tare, allowing the cost of the bagging, rope, or 
iron ties. 

I offer this resolution to get the matter before the Associa- 
tion, and meet the suggestion that we of the South should pro- 
pose some remedy. I think the allowance to the planter of 
what his bagging and rope costs would be fair to him, and that 
the manufacturer would then get the exact weight of cotton 
bought, and would be satisfied on his part. 

Mr. Ward : That would not meet the case. It is utterly 
impossible for us to pledge every man to give his order as sug- 
gested, and if one man fails, it breaks up the whole arrange- 
ment. I hope our friends at the South will have the tare 
regulated by legislative action. Then the thing is sure, and all 
will conform to the law. 

Col. "Wesson: There are laws in all the Southern States 
making it a penitentiary offence to false pack cotton, but it is 
difficult to prove it. Besides, we have had no courts at the 
South of late. We are under military rule, and there are no 
statutes against false packing in the bureau. We have the law 
on our statute books, but our judges are laid aside. As soon 
as we get our civil machinery working again, these cases of 
false packing, when it can be proved, will be punished. 

As to the freedmen, they are ignorant, and we do not hold 
them responsible as we should intelligent men. They do not 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 33 

appreciate the moral turpitude of the act, and if they' did we 
have no courts in which to prosecute them. 

Mr. JoHNSTOlsr: I move that the Committee on Tare be 
requested to make their report at the earliest practicable mo- 
ment, and that their report be referred to the Vice President 
in each State, and that the Vice Presidents bring it before their 
legislatures, that there may be a uniform law passed in all the 
States. 

Mr. LlPPITT : I am opposed to allowing the planters to 
charge for what they put round their cotton. If a man sells a 
barrel of flour he don't charge for the barrel. If a merchant 
sells a case or a bale of goods, he don't charge for the case or 
bale. It is incidental to their business to put up their goods in 
proper mercantile order. I move that the motion of Mr. Gra- 
ham be amended by striking out the words, "allowing the 
cost of the bagging, rope, or iron ties." 

The motion to amend was carried, and then, on 
motion of Mr. Lippitt, the resohition was referred 
to the Committee on Tare, with instructions to re- 
port as soon as possible. 

MEMORIAL OP THE MEMPHIS CONVENTION. 

The PreSIDE:n^T : I have the pleasure of introducing to 
you a gentleman from Tennessee, who comes here as a repre- 
sentative of the Commercial Convention lately held at Mem- 
phis, Mr. Robert T. Saunders. 

Mr. Sau:N'DERS : I wish at this time merely to present 
the memorial of the Commercial Convention. 

On motion of Mr. Ward, the memorial was re- 
ferred to the Executive Committee, with authority 
to print.* 

THE TARIFF. 

Col. Wesson; I wish to introduce a resolution in rela- 
tion to the tariff. I was a Clay whig, and of course a tariff 
man, and I believe that the same reason that made a tariff 
necessary in former days holds good now, especially in relation 

* See Appendix B. 
5 



34 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

to my section of the country. You here can walk, but we are 
crawling yet. You might get along very well without us, and 
if we were not connected with you in various ways, we might 
say you can take care of yourselves ; but we claim that you are 
the parent of manufactures in the South, and should throw your 
protecting arm over us, and help us to maintain a healthy tariff; 
not a prohibitive one, — we don't want that ; but we have got 
to raise a revenue somewhere, and that is the best way to raise 
it, and it is protecting a new interest which needs your help. 

Whereas^ the growing and the manufacturing of cotton are 
important sources of national wealth, and are mutually de- 
pendent upon each other for their proper success; 

And whereas^ from causes beyond our control, the rates of 
local taxation, the rates of interest on capital, and the rates of 
wages of labor, are so much higher here than they are in Eng- 
land and other rival countries on the continent of Europe, that 
we cannot successfully compete with those countries in the 
manufacture of cotton, unless these disparities are counteracted 
by suitable legislative provisions; 

And whereas^ it is anticipated that a change of tariff, in- 
volving a modification of customs duties, will be proposed at 
the approaching session of Congress ; 

Resolved^ That so long as these disparities exist, sound policy 
requires that our customs duties should be so adjusted as to 
neutralize them, and place us on a basis of equal competition. 

Resolved^ That, as it is one of the principal objects of this 
Association to observe legislation on questions affecting this 
branch of industry, a committee of fifteen be appointed by the 
Chair to watch the course of legislation on this subject, and to 
take such action as they may deem expedient. 

Mr. MuDGE : I second the resolution. As it is directly 
in the path of what we marked out at the organization of this 
Association, I think we are all called upon to give our hearty 
assent and approval. We must watch the course of legislation, 
if we hope to live in the houses or operate the mills we have 
built. 

There is an antagonism to the manufacturing industry of the 
country growing up, emanating from abroad in great measure, 
but centering in this city, with its ramifications in all parts of 
the country, and we are to have a desperate struggle on this 
very question. It will be pressed with all the vigor of desperate 
men in the next Congress. The importers, it is well known, 
have been losing money for the last two years in immense sums. 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 35 

The manufacturing agencies in this city are being given up, the 
manufacturers on the other side declaring that if the present 
tariff remains they must either remove their machinery to this 
country ; or give up their business. In view of all these things, 
I think it highly important that this Association move in the 
direction indicated in the resolutions offered by Col. Wesson. 

Mr. 'Waed: I hope the preamble and resolutions will 
pass unanimously, and also that the Chairman will take time in 
appointing the committee. It is very desirable that the com- 
mittee shall be selected with care, so that the cotton growers 
and cotton manufacturers in all parts of the country be repre- 
sented upon it. There will probably be a revision of the tariff 
at the next session of Congress, and it is extremely important 
that men representing these different interests should come to- 
gether and aid in this revision. A meeting of the committee 
can be called at Washington, at the opening of Congress, and 
the whole subject then be taken up. 

Mr. GrARSED I While the subject of tariff is before the 
Association I hope we shall not lose sight of one of the greatest 
difficulties, if not one of the greatest dangers to the manufac- 
turer, namely, the never-ending tinkering of our revenue laws. 
We are pretty well up in making sheetings, drills, and standard 
goods, as the term is understood in Boston and New York ; but 
we are not so well up in making lawns, alpacas, Italian cloths, 
and many fine goods worn by ladies. Now, so long as our 
legislation makes only temporary provision at one session to be 
repealed at the next, few capitalists will invest their money in 
the manufacture of these new fabrics. It takes an Enghshman 
some thirty years to learn how to make a piece of dress goods, 
and it will take us more than as many months. It would be 
better then to have Englishmen come on our soil and give us 
the benefit of their experience. Let Congress, if possible, pass 
a tariff for a given number of years. 

We have had some experience of a compromise tariff, begin- 
ning, I think, about 1828, until we got down to free trade and 
broke all up, and had to start again. 

If we are to have another start, it would be very much better 
if it could be specified how long a given state of things was to 
exist. The manufacture of dress goods has taken root on our 
soil, and is a strong plant that will soon be able to take care of 



36 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

itself, unless some legislation is adopted which destroys it for 
the time being, and puts us back thirty or forty years. If Con- 
gress could be induced to specify how long the tariff shall last, 
I think we may have this manufacture permanently established 
here, and after a little while, I think you may have as much 
free trade as you want. 

Mr. JohI^^STON: I fully agree with what has just been 
said. It is not an extreme protective tariff that we want, but 
something permanent and reliable, and this is why I would make 
a few remarks in relation to this committee, and what would be 
my idea of its duties. We must not run into extremes, and I 
hope the committee will adopt some sort of medium plan, and 
then endeavor to influence Congress in such a way as to obtain 
a tariff that is permanent, if that is possible. 
;i I think one of the greatest injuries our manufacturers have 
suffered has resulted from a high tariff. If they will look back 
ten years, they will acknowledge that we were far behind the 
English manufacturers in the machinery used for producing 
cotton goods, and why ? Because our machine builders had all 
they could do; they made all the profits they wanted ; they met 
the demand. Then some men who had crossed the ocean sent 
back word that we were behind the world ; that our machine 
shops were second-class ; our machinery third-class ; and that 
there must be some change or we should be left clear behind. 
This is acknowledged by our New England machine builders, 
and they are changing their machinery. We are apt scholars. 
The Englishman will find his machines and machine shops 
copied here and improved upon; — Yankeefied a little, and the 
better for that. We want a tariff that will compel our manu- 
facturers and machine makers to find out what improvements 
are needed. 

I know what the English machine-builders have done for us 
in the way of improved machinery. Look at the fly frame. 
The frame brought from England fifteen or twenty years ago, 
I think, is in the machine shops to-day. It went to four of the 
largest machine manufacturers in New England, each of whom 
has made a fortune out of it. They copied it with little altera- 
tion, except in style. The general principles of producing 
roving were identical in all. They kept on for ten or fifteen 
years, till Mr. Hawkins sent out a new pattern^ and Mr. John 



FIKST ANNUAL MEETING. 37 

Mason made a machine that will run fifty per cent faster than 
any frame we have. 

Our machine builders found they must make some change, 
and now you can find a good roving frame in this country. / 

Mr. HOEKOBrN": Coming over in the Scotia, I met an 
English manufacturer who was coming here to put up a doub- 
ling and twisting mill. He was a manufacturer of yarns. The 
duties on twisted and single yarns are entirely diflferent. He 
would import his own yarn, single and untwisted, and double 
and twist it here to make thread. Would it not be well for 
the Committee to think of this ? 

Mr. MUDGE : That is, the duty on yarn and the duty on 
thread are difierent ? 

Mr. HoerOBIN: Certainly. 

Mr. GarSED : The duty upon yarn doubled and twisted 
and used as warp for weaving, is different from the duty on that 
used for thread. The thread duty is upon the number of yarn, 
amounting to an enormous thing, to protect our thread manu- 
facturers, while the duty upon precisely the same thing in warp, 
is about 35 or 40 per cent. 

Mr. Saundees : I have listened with great attention to 
the remarks of gentlemen upon the tariff, but I wish we could 
connect with that the idea of some system for improving the 
Mississippi levees. You want more cotton, and more cheap 
cotton. Great Britain wants the same thing. 

India and Egypt can raise cotton. So can Algeria, Turkey, 
and the Levant, but they must all be paid a good price. No 
other country can raise cheap cotton but America. See what 
has been done in Georgia with guanos and phosphates. They 
have got a greater yield to the acre on their poor lands by 
using fertilizers, than we have ever got in the rich Mississippi 
bottoms. Your Committee would do a great deal of good if 
they would call the attention of Congress to the levees. 

I don't know whether it is constitutional for Congress to go 
into anything of the sort, but they might repair some of the 
breakages, especially those made for military purposes. 

I wish that by the next meeting some of the earnest mem- 
bers would take up the subject, and bring forward something 



38 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

like a Committee on Emigration, or on Levees, or something 
touching the improvement of the land. 

The question was put upon the passage of the 
preamble and resohitions offered by Mr, Wesson, 
and they were adopted unanimously. 

ELECTION OF OFFICERS. 

On motion of Mr. Ward, it was voted that a 
Committee of three be appointed by the Chair, to 
nominate officers for the ensuing year. 

The Chair ajDpointed Messrs. Wessoisj-, Kelly, 
and Park. 

The Committee having retired for consultation, 
submitted a list of officers, which was read. 

On motion of Mr. Borden, the report was re^ 
committed to be amended, in accordance with 
Article 3 of section II, of the By-laws, which 
provides for the retirement, every year, of one-fifth 
of the Directors, and one member of each Standing 
Committee. 

THE NEXT ANNUAL MEETING. 

The President : While the Committee are out, I would 
suggest that the time for the next meeting be fixed. 

Mr. Saunders : I think there will be a growing interest 
in this Association. Many parties whom I met in Tennessee 
and North Alabama and Virginia, wanted to attend this 
meeting, but the time is an inconvenient one. From the 10th 
to the last of July would be a much more opportune time. I 
would suggest Newport, or some such place, for the meeting, 
though that is of less consequence than a later time. 

After consultation it was voted that the next 
annual meeting shall be held on the- second Wed- 
nesday in July, 



FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 39 

Mr. Pauk, from the Committee on JSTominations, 
reported an amended list. 

The report was accepted, and a ballot being 
ordered, the gentlemen named were unanimously 
elected.* 

AMENDMENT TO THE BY-LAWS. 

Mr. ^VarD gave notice that he should move at the next 
meeting a repeal of so much of Article 3rd of section II, of the 
By-laws as requires that a portion of the officers shall be retained 
each year. Also, an amendment of Article 1 of section VI, so 
that it shall read, " These By-laws may be amended or repealed 
by a vote of two-thirds of the members present at any duly 
organized meeting of the Association, provided notice of such 
proposed change be inserted in the call for the meeting. 

Mr. Saunders gave notice of a proposed amendment to 
Article 1 of section III, so as to read the second Wednesday 
in July, in place of the last Wednesday in June. 

On motion of Mr. JN'iohols, the meeting was 
dissolved. 



*For list of officers, see Appendix C. 



APPENDIX A. 



SYNOPSIS OF RETURNS FROM COTTON MILLS, JUNE 30, 


1869. 


State. 


Mills.' 


Spindles. 


Average 
Yarn. 


Cotton Spun. 

POUNDS. 


Average 
Spindle. 


Cotton other>vi8e 
used. 

POUNDS. 


Maine .... 


22 


443,800 


24? 


28,838,608 


65. 




New Hampshire . 


49 


734,460 


251 


48,089,439 


65.46 


1,389,700 


Vermont . . . 


16 


28,038 


29| 


1,281,125 


45.69 


953,500 


Massachusetts . 


153 


2,395,050 


27^ 


138,678,644 


57.90 


197,000 


Khode Island . 


126 


1,082,376 


35| 


51,938,373 


47.06 




Connecticut . . 


85 


553,516 


29 


32,240,120 


58.30 


642,500 


New York . . 


91 


462,678 


31| 


23,656,044 


55.41 


4,125,000 


New Jersey . . 


30 


175,042 


32| 


10,767,600 


61.51 




Pennsylvania . 


83 


399,082 


in 


35,907,531 


90. 


3,226,500 


Delaware . . . 


9 


48,892 


21 


3,288,280 


67.46 




Maryland . . . 


18 


82,970 


Hi 


16,609,308 


200. 




Ohio 


5 


22,834 


13 


3,170,000 


138.82 


600,000 


Indiana .... 


1 


10,800 


14 


1,493,061 


138.26 




•«ife£*r~~.-..,^.-. 


1 










126,500 


Missouri . . . 


4 


13,436 


10 


2,475,000 


184.21 






693 


6,452,974 


27i 


398,433,133 


61.46 


11,260,700 


Virginia .... 


10 


36,060 


151 


4,010,000 


111.18 




North Carolina . 


20 


27,369 


m 


4,147,000 


151.37 




South Carolina . 


6 


31,588 


13f 


4,174,100 


132.14 




Georgia .... 


32 


89,182 


111 


14,699,350 


165.16 




Alabama . . . 


8 


25,196 


17 


2,820,596 


112. 




Mississippi . . . 


6 


8,752 


9 


1,457,000 


166.48 




Texas .... 


4 


8,528 


9^ 


1,372,104 


160.90 




Arkansas . . . 


2 


924 


8^ 


258,400 


268.83 




Tennessee . . . 


10 


13,720 


10 


1,847,200 


134. 




Ki ntucky . . . 


3 


6,264 


10 


1,075,000 


171.62 






101 


247,583 


12| 


35,860,750 


144.60 





RECAPITULATION. 



Northern States 
Southern States 



Total 



693 
101 



,452,974 
247,583 



,700,557 



27| 
121 



27i 



398,433,133 
35,860,750 



434,293,883 



61.46 
144.60 



64.82 



11,260,700 



11,260,700 



42 APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX B. 



Memorial to the ^^ Cotton Supply Association of Manchester " England, 
and to the ^^ national Association of Cotton Manufacturers and 
Planters " of the United States, and through these Associations to the 
Cotton Spinners of Europe and America : 

We, a special committee from the Commercial Convention now 
sitting in the city of Memphis, Tennessee, as memorialists, represent 
that we are closely connected With the cotton trade now carried on be- 
tween Great Britain and America, and deeply interested in all that 
relates to the progress, prosperity, and commerce of both countries. 

The extensive mercantile relations existing between the two coun- 
tries, which are every year increasing in magnitude and importance, 
render it highly expedient and desirable in the opinion of your memo- 
rialists, that more accurate information be given respecting the con- 
dition and advantages now aftbrded for increasing future "cotton 
supply" in the United States, inasmuch as great interest is now being 
manifested by the cotton spinners, both of Europe and America, 
respecting a sufficient supply of the " raw material," at acheaper price 
and in greater quantity. 

On the 2d March, "^ 1869, the memorials of the "Cotton Supply 
Association," the "Cotton Spinners Association," and the Chamber 
of Commerce of Manchester, England, to the Duke of Argyle, the 
principal Secretary of State for India, in council, urged a special 
Cotton Bureau for India, inasmuch as they looked to that country for 
relief in case of failure of sujpply from America. 

The report of the Cotton Supply Association says : " There appears 
to be little probability that the production of cotton in America will, 
for many years to come, be adequate to the requirements of this and 
other countries ; your memorialists, therefore, believe that India is the 
great source to which they must look for enlarged supplies that are so 
urgently needed," etc. 

Though we hail with pleasure any exertions to increase the supply 
of cotton in India and all other countries, we can but think that to the 
Southern States of America, at last, must we look for any permanent 
increase in the supply of the "raw material." In East India, Egypt, 
Algeria, and the Levant, as in Brazil, Peru, and the West Indies, there 
are many difficulties attendant upon any permanent increase in the 
future growth of cotton, and in furnishing such cotton, at a cheaper 
price, in sufficient quantity to supply the wants of the world. 
. Can these countries grow cotton at a cost of sixpence per pound? 
If they cannot, then are they unable to compete with the United States. 

EAST INDIA. 

In East India the difficulty of obtaining any tenure to the soil; the 
rude and insufficient means of transportation ; the tropical nature of 
the climate, deluging the land for one-half the year with rain, and 
parching it with drouth the other half, stamp it as a clime but poorly 
suited to the growth of a plant requiring so long and so regular a 
supply of moisture to mature its fruit — all of which make against 



APPENDIX. 43 

any speedy increase in the supply of cotton from that country. Out of 
16,000,000 acres annually appropriated to cotton ijrowing, the largest 
yield for exportation was in 1866 (when stimulated by high prices), 
and did reach 1,840,648 bales — decreasing in 1867 to 1,508,903 bales, 
and in 1868 to 1,420,576 bales — averaging three hundred and forty- 
seven pounds. In the district of Orrissa and in Eastern Bengal, when 
the large crop of 1866 was made, over 1,350,000 souls perished from ' 
starvation, produced from putting in cotton lands that should have 
boen appropriated to breadstuffs. It is now predicted that the cotton 
crop of East India will still further be reduced the present year — 
declining, perhaps, to 1,250,000 bales. 

EGYPT, TURKEY, SMYRNA, GREECE, &C. 

In Egypt a more strict system of irrigation is adhered to, and the 
heavy expenditures for canal dues, steam machinery and English coal 
for fuel, to raise water from the Nile, with the high price of cotton 
lands, joined to onerous taxes exacted by the Government, will dis- 
courage, to a great degree, any further increase in cotton supply. 
Besides, in 1865, when a large attempt at cotton growing was made, 
some 850,000 of the population of Egypt perished from actual starva- 
tion. The yield that year, 1864-65, was 404,411 bales, and since that 
tmie has never been attained. Only 193,035 bales were imported into 
Great Britain the past year, averaging 500 pounds each. 

Though the Viceroy of Egypt and "the Sultan of Turkey have both 
been recently memorialized by the "Manchester Cotton Supply 
Association," respecting the future growth of larger crops of cotton 
throughout their dominions, the yield has not increased to any extent 
in Egypt, and both Turkey and Greece together only exported 'the past 
year into Liverpool 12,623 bales of cotton. 

Smyrna cut down her fig and fruit trees in 1864, for the pui-pose of 
growing cotton, but has now abandoned it, while the. rest of the 
Levant, except for domestic purposes, has given it up altogether. 

BRAZIL, PERU, AND WEST INDIES. 

South America is steadily increasing in the production of cotton, 
but so slowly it does not amount to much. The past year the yield 
was 180,000 bales more than in the year 1867. But, as the bales in 
Brazil only average 155 pounds, and those in the West Indies and Peru 
only 180 pounds, the actual increase for the whole of South America 
and the West Indies, reduced to the American standard of 500 pounds 
each, does not amount to over 65,000 bales of cotton for the past year. 
This increase, however, in South America, does not atone to the 
cotton world for the decrease in East India the past year, which 
amounts to 88,327 bales, and compared with 1866, to 420,072 bales, 
and not as many pounds of raw cotton were , imported into Great 
Britain in 1868 as during the year 1866. *-' 

Brazil and Peru are dependent almost solely on irrigation for the 
production of their cotton crops. The Pernambuco, Maceio, Bahia, 
and Santos cottons, so favorably known in the European markets, are 
produced by damming up the " rigollettas," or rivulets of melted snow 
that come from the Cordilleras, and thus, during the summer months, 
furnishing means of irrigation, so necessary in that arid climate to the 
maturity of the cotton plant. But for the terraces and irrigating 
canals of Peru, which convey the melted snows from the Andes, she 
could not grow cotton at all — and even now her crop is very small, for 
that imported into Liverpool the past year amounted only to 58,911 
bags, of 180 pounds — equivalent to a little over 21,000 bales of 500 
pounds each. While that of Brazil, although it amounts to 629,502 
bales, of 155 pounds each, when reduced to 500 pound bales amounts 
only to a little over 195,000 bags. 



44 APPENDIX. 



COMPARATIVE VALUE OP AMERICAN COTTONS. 

But America is the home of the cotton plant, ancUhe Southern States 
of America the only country wliere cotton can be produced success- 
fully and regularly without resorting to the artificial means of 
irrigation, if is to those States that the trade must then look to 
furnish the deficiency in " cotton supply " for the world. 

American cottons are of more general utility both for w^arp and 
woof, than those of other countries. In Europe they are used almost 
exclusively for warp, while the filling is of India or some other less 
costly cotton. The world, therefore, requires not only a large supply, 
and a cheap supply, of cotton, but a supply of a peculiar kind and 
quality. 

There are, properly speaking, now in use three kinds or classes of 
cotton. 

1st. The " Sea Island," or long staple cottons, grown principally 
on the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Of this denomi- 
nation of cotton, comparatively, the consumption is small. 

2d. The medium long staple cottons of American growth, denomina- 
ted in Liverpool, "Uplands," and "New Orleans;" in the United 
States, known as New Orleans, Texas, Mobile, Savannah, Charleston, 
and "Memphis cottons." It is stated that prior to the war, nine 
bags of American cotton was used to one bag of all other descriptions 
put together. The American cottons are used almost entirely in 
European factories for warp, while the woof or filling is of other less 
costly grades. For the warp or extended threads, strength and length 
of fibre is especially required; while for the weft or transverse 
threads of the loom, softness and fulness are the chief requisites. No 
other cotton is better adapted as to strength and length, either to spin 
into the higher numbers, or to sustain the tension and friction to 
which the threads are exposed in the loom. 

3d. The short staple cotton — used almost exclusively for weft or 
filling. It is drier, " fuzzier," more like rough wool, and principally 
grown in India. 

It is, therefore, seen that while the cotton spinners of Europe 
require only to a limited extent the first and third classes of raw cotton, 
viz.. Sea Island and India cottons — of the second class, or medium 
staple cottons of American growth, they need and can consume an 
almost unlimited supply. 

It is the insufficient supply and the high price of American cotton 
that has driven English manufacturers upon the short stapled native 
article of India — called " Surat." But so beautifully have the manu- 
facturers reduced the system of mixing the two in the fabrics, that the 
more American cotton manufactured in England, the greater will be the 
necessity for Surat cotton ; and the less American cotton that is passed 
through British looms, the smaller will be the quantity of Surat taken. 

It must, therefore, be borne in mind that the great disideratum now 
for Europe is not simply one of more cotton — but more cotton and at 
a cheaper price of the character and quality of that grown in the 
Southern States of America. 

If India were to send to Great Britain three millions of bales of 
cotton in place of the fifteen hundred thousand she now furnishes, the 
disideratum would not be supplied — and she would still be almost as 
dependent on America as ever. She cannot grow the needed char- 
acter of cotton, and the growth of British India must continue to com- 
mand attention only when better descriptions cannot be obtained. 

Although several quarters of the world supply the long staple — and 
India furnishes enormous quantities of the short staple — the United 
States of America have hitherto produced the medium and most neces- 
sary kinds, and unless American production can be stimulated and in- 
creased, the cotton trade of the world must suffer to an enormous extent. 



APPENDIX. 45 



CONSUMPTION OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 

The cotton interests of Europe and America alone require an annual 
supply of over 6,000,000 of bales of cotton to keep their machinery 
moving — whereas, the actual available production of the world will 
not amount, the present year, to 5,000,000 bales. 

Granting that East India and the United States may make full 
average crops of cotton, the most favorable production cannot supply 
the deficiency. 

Say for the crop of the cotton year 1869 : 

East India, more than last year 1,500,000 

Egypt „ „ „ 230,000 

Turkey, Levant, etc., ,, 12,500 

Brazil, Peru, and West Indies, same as last year . . 707,500 

United States, more than last year 2,500,000 

All other sources 50,000 

Making a liberal estimate of 5,000,000 

for the production of the world, while the consumption is over 
6,000,000, leaving the apparent deficit in supply in the " raw material" 
over 1,000,000 bales of cotton, at the end of the present year. 

AVAILABLE PRODUCTION OF THE W^ORLD. 

The cotton crop of the world does not now amoun,t to four 
millions of bales, averaging 500 pounds, and exclusive of the United 
States, the available production of the globe does not much exceed 
eighteen hundred thousand bales, of the same average. 

How to supply this deficit is the question, and how to supply it with 
the needed character of cotton. 

From the census of 1860 it is ascertained that the cotton crop of 
the United States for the year 1859-60 amounted to five millions one 
hundred and ninety-six thousand nine hundred and forty-four bales, of 
400 pounds each. The same crop if reduced to bales of 500 pounds 
each, shows a yield for that cotton year of forty-one hundred and fifty- 
seven thousand five hundred and fifty bales — a larger quantity of 
cotton than is now produced on the globe. Since 1861 the largest 
yield was that of the past year, amounting to twenty-four hundred and 
thirty thousand eight hundred and ninety-three bales of cotton. 

We have the same soil, the same peculiar climate, influenced by the 
Gulf Stream, causing a regular system of irrigation from the clouds 
wafted fi'om the bosom of the Southern seas, and producing the 
moisture and heat so requisite during the summer months to the 
health and vitality of the cotton plant. All the natural advantages 
possessed by the Southern States for the culture of their principal 
staple remain. But we want labor, — and with an abundance of labor 
the increase of cotton would not only be commensurate with the wants 
of the world, but the cost of production as the increase progressed 
would be lessened by an unerring law governing all trade. 

At present it is estimated that nearly one-half of the cleared lands of 
the South are uncultivated, for want of labor, and therefore the cost 
at which labor is now acquired, and cotton produced, is dispropor- 
tionately dear. 

« 

AREA OF SOUTHERN COTTON STATES, ETC. 

The area of the ten largest cotton-growing States — North Carolina, 
South Carolina, Georgia. Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, 
Texa^, Arkansas, and Tennessee — is six hundred and sixty-six 
thousand one hundred and ninetj^-six square miles or four hundred and 
twenty six millions three hundred and sixty-five thousand four hundred 
and forty acres. If we add Missouri and Virginia, we embrace a 



46 APPENDIX. 

territory of over eight Imndred thousand square miles — almost as 
large as the aggregate area of Great Britain, France, Prussia, Austria, 
and Italy. The single cotton State of Texas is larger than either Great 
Britain, France, Prussia, or Italy, and nearly equal in area to the 
Austrian Empire. Southeastern Missouri might, with great propriety, 
be entered in the list, as the Bureau of Statistics at Washington now 
report nearly as large an average yield per acre from that State as any 
other, thereby confirming the theory that the " Isothermal lines," or 
lines of equal heat, do not correspond with the parallels of latitude, 
but diverge from given points on the Atlantic seaboard, in a north- 
westwardly direction, demonstrating the fact that Columbia, in South 
Carolina, is not much warmer, if any, than New Madrid in South- 
eastern Missouri, though two degrees farther south. 

In confirmation of these scientific observations, the experience of a 
few years past has shown that Tennessee, which was formerly scarcely 
considered a Cottou State, now ranks high among the cotton producing, 
and third among the cotton receiving. States; and that lands lying 
along the northern edge of the cotton belt produce sure and steady 
crops, being less liable to the " cotton worm " and the " rot," 
although the product per acre is not so much as further south. 

PRODUCTION TO BE STIMULATED. 

From a region, then, of such vast extent, what might we not expect if 
ther.e wera union of effort amongst those interested, to stimulate a 
larger production? Practically, there is no limit to the cotton pro- 
duction of these States. 

If the cotton spinners of the United States of America, whose 
Interests are identified with the cotton planters, who have been favor- 
ing railway and wild laud speculations in the far West, instead of 
turning the tide of immigration to the open fields of the South, would 
now pursue a contrary course and lend us their aid, the production of 
the "raw material" could soon be increased. If the "National As- 
tion of Cotton Manufacturers and Planters" of the United States 
would direct public attention to the subject, it would materially 
assist us. 

If the "Cotton Supply Association" and the Cotton Spinners 
Association," of Manchester, England, would induce a surplus portion 
of the population of Great Britain and Europe to come among us and 
assist in cultivating our unoccupied cotton lands, then would Lancashire 
be greatly benefited and saved the fears of future "cotton famines," 
with the certainty of being furnished the " raw material " at a cheaper 
price than it can be produced in any other quarter of the globe. 

The planters and the ryots of India will not grow cotton except 
stimulated by high prices. The imperfect system of irrigation, the 
constant deterioration of exotic or American cotton seed, necessitating 
large outlays annually for their importation, the poor means of trans- 
portation, and the great difticulty of obtaining breadstufis in the 
interior of that remote country, will deter them from risking it and 
increasiug the production to much extent, unless they are paid 
remunerative prices. 

The lands of Egypt are too valuable and the cultivation of the 
"great staple" attended with too much expense, to grow cotton to 
any extent at a less price than twelve to fifteen pence per pound. The 
lands along the banks of the Nile, suited to cotton growing, all com- 
mand from twenty to forty pounds sterling (.$100 to $200 in gold) per 
acre. Besides, the arable land in Egypt is confined to a very narrow 
strip along both banks of the Nile, most of which must contiuue to be 
cultivated in cereals for the support of its already overcrowded popu- 
lation. The remainder of the country is but a desert of burning, 
moving sands — the sport of the simoon and the home of the sirocco. 



APPENDIX. 47 



TENNESSEE, LEVEES, ETC. 

We stand to-day upon the soil of a Cotton State worth more to the 
world than the whole of South America and the West Indies. The 
State of Tennessee is credited in the last annual Cotton Statement 
with three hundred and seventy-four thousand, eight hundred and 
sixty bales of cotton, averaging over 443 pounds per bale. 

The production of Brazil, reduced to the same standard of 443 
pounds per bale, would give a yield the past cotton year of 220,256 
bales; Peru, 24,837 bales, and the West Indies, 8,382 bales, making 
total crop for exportation, 253,477 bales from South America and 
West Indies. Not more than was received by the city of Memphis 
the past season ; for Memphis received the past cotton year 253,207 
bales, and so far this season has already received over 245,000 bales 
of cotton. 

The Yazoo basin, in the State of Mississippi, lying immediately 
South of Tennessee, bounded on the west by the Mississippi river, 
and on the south and on the east by the Yazoo, Tallahatchie, and 
Coldwater rivers, covers an area of nearly four millions of acres, and 
is worth more as a cotton country to the world than the whole of 
Egypt. From the Tennessee line to the mouth of the Yazoo, not a 
stream enters the Mississippi river for 350 miles possessing, in this 
respect, superior physical advantages for easy and safe protection to 
any other portion of the Mississippi Valley. 

In 1860 the State of Mississippi produced 1,202,507 bales of cotton; 
and it is estimated that of this amount nearly one-fourth was 
produced in the delta of the Yazoo. Here was the widest por- 
tion of the inland sea which once occupied the lower valley of 
the Mississippi. Its exceeding fatness is Nile-like, without the aridity 
of Egypt. Its soil resembles, in fineness, the silt of the ocean's bed, 
and is enriched by the opulence of the sea and the munificence of the 
land in the dead organisms of former prolific and vigorous life, which 
furnish in abundance the lime and potash and other elements which 
cotton requires. It is the most fertile and productive cotton domain 
on this continent, and Congress should, as an act of justice to the 
cotton-spinners of the North, and to the cotton-growers of the South, 
repair at least the " Yazoo Pass," and the portion of the levees that 
were destroyed for military purposes during the late civil Avar. With 
the levees up and secure from inundation, the successful cultivation of 
the Yazoo delta would alone secure annually an addition to the Ameri- 
can cotton crop of 1,000,000 bales. 

CHEAP COTTON. — IMPROVED CULTIVATION, ETC. 

Cheap cotton, then, and in sufficient supply, is what the world 
requires and must have. Lancashire and the continent of Europe 
must obtain cheaper cotton, or their mills must stop. For the past 
two years they have paid for "American middlings" and "fair 
Egyptians " an average over ten pence per pound ; and many mills are 
now closed, or working on " short time," in consequence of the con- 
tinued high price of raw cotton. 

With our levees up, the freedman would seek the alluvial land^ of 
the Mississippi Valley, finding there a better reward for his labor. 
The climate agrees with him, and 'he with the climate. With an 
intelligent white immigration settling upon the "uplands" of the 
Cotton States ; with smaller farms and improved seeds ; with deep 
plowing, commercial manures, an enlightened system of cultivation — 
using all the appliances of improved husbandry, and employing every 
available means to render the soil increasingly productive — we could 
easily extend the yield of the Southern cotton crops again to five 
millions, in place of two millions five hundred thousand bales. 



48 APPENDIX. 



It is estimated that Georgia alone, the present year, has consumed 
over twenty thousand tons of commercial manures, in guanos and 
phosphates, improving her cotton lands. The product is doubled by it, 
the cultivation of one-half the area is saved, and the laborer has time 
to devote to the cereals and fruits, making life on a cotton plantation 
more agreeable to the habits and tastes of the white man. This 
revolution has been inaugurated by David Dickson, Esq., of Sparta, 
Georgia, who last year invested thirteen thousand dollars in commer- 
cial manures with great profit, and who, in the midst of his extensive 
operations, has found time, by judicious selections and crosses, to 
introduce the best cotton seed in America. 

We commend this system to the attention of the cotton trade, 
because they can safely advise immigrants to come to the healthy and 
well-watered " uplands " of the South, with a fair prospect of growing 
cotton successfully, without the constant drudgery which was once 
thought necessary to its production, and at the same time surround- 
ing their little hai3itations with the luxuries and comforts which they 
have been accustomed to in their Northern and European homes. For 
although necessity may compel the introduction of laborers from the 
half civilized Pagan races of the earth, we confess we have a strong 
preference for those of a higher stamp, and who will ultimately make 
good citizens, merged into our population. 

CONDITION OF LABOR, ETC. 

There is a great mistake generally made in regard to the amount of 
labor now employed in the cultivation of cotton. When the emancipa- 
tion occurred the planters made great efforts to associate the laborers 
together on their large plantations, but the system has completely 
broken down and given place to the " squad system," where from two 
to eight hands only work together, in many instances a single family. 
The "squad system" on large plantations is much less productive 
than the old system of " associated labor," as there is no concert of 
action and fair division of labor, according to the recognized laws 
of political economy. 

The freedman is unambitious of accumulation, but shows great 
anxiety to have his little home, with his horse, cow, and hogs 
separate and apart from others. Therefore, he strenuously insists on 
a full grain crop for subsistence of his family and stock, and 
only a moderate cotton crop. On a majority of the plantations, in 
projecting the cotton crop, the freed women are entirely ignored, and 
are left to attend to the household and the garden, except when the 
season is very difficult, when they give some assistance to their hus- 
bands and fathers in the cultivation, and, also occasionally in the 
gathering of the crop. This fact in itself is sufficient to account in no 
small degree for the disappearance of a large proportion of the efficieut 
labor once directed specially to the production of cotton. Perhaps it 
is more potent in this direction than the loss by death in the negro . 
population during the late war, now variously estimated from five 
hundred thousand to one million of souls. The labor most efficient, 
and now most to be depended on, is that of the older negroes, whose 
habits of industry have been confirmed. The young negroes growing 
up since the war are generally idle, fond of pleasure, impatient of the 
control of their parents, and do not give promise of much usefulness. 

The total number of slaves in all the American States and Terri- 
tories, according to the census of 1860, was three million nine hundred 
and fifty-three thousand seven hundred and sixty. The ten cotton 
growing States, however, contained but three million and thirty 
thousand, two hundred and forty-five. Of this number not twelve 
hundred thousand were cultivators of our "great staple." The 
remainder, less the men and women who were too old, and the children 



APPENDIX. 49 



who were too yoiiug, being employed in other kinds of agriculture, in 
mechanical pursuits, and as house servants. It would be safe to say 
that not over half this number (six hundred thousand freednien,) are 
now employed in the cultivation of cotton. What proportion of white 
labor is so employed is hard to conjecture ; but even estimating it as 
high as 200,000, that with the labor of the freedmcn, at the high 
average of three bales to the hand, would not give an annual yield of 
over 2,400,000 bales of cotton. 

It may be that the estimate of 600,000 freedmen now employed in 
the cultivation of cotton, is too small, and the lessening of the cotton 
crop may be owing in some degree to the fact that less cotton per head 
is planted, and more grain since the war. But it is quite apparent, 
that if the amount of white labor now engaged in the cultivation of 
cotton does not amount to one-fourth, it is certainly on the increase, 
stimulated by present remunerative prices. 

OVER ESTIMATING COTTON PRODUCTION, ETC. 

Another mistake generally made, is in over estimating the cotton 
yield per acre, of the United States. It requires three acres on an 
average to make one bale of cotton, and only in a few instances does 
the census record a larger yield. 

In 1860, in the parish of Tensas, in Louisiana, and in San Augustine 
county, Texas, a bale of cotton was made to the acre — weighing four 
hundred pounds. In East India, the average yield from indigenous 
or native seed, is one bale for nine acres ; but since the introduction of 
exotic, or American seed, the yield per acre has been greatly improved. 

No material increase in the production of cotton can be expected 
from the Southern States, unless our supply of labor is increased by 
immigration. 

Notwithstanding the remarks of the Hon. Reverdy Johnson, who 
recently, in the Town Hall, Manchester, assured the people of Lan- 
cashire, that " Avhen free labor becomes to be properly developed and 
organized," Manchester would rejoice, not only in four or five, but in a 
few years, in six or seven millions of bales from America; we are 
forced to the conclusion that the average yield of the Southern cotton 
crops, with the present labor system, cannot exceed 2,500,000. Could 
we grow 3,000,000 it could not be picked out and saved. His hearers, 
the English people, have had some experience in "developing and 
organizing free labor" in their West India possession for nearly a 
generation, and they are better judges than that distinguished diplo- 
matist, whose experience extends only over the past three years. Such 
remarks clearly show what errors men of distinguished abilities fall 
into, when they leave the sphere in which they usually revolve, and 
venture to give opinions on subjects of which they have no practical 
information. 

So far from looking for any speedy increase in the cotton crops of 
the United States, we fear on the other hand, that labor in cotton 
culture is fast diminishing. It is from three causes ; emigration from 
the cotton fields to the towns and cities ; the deaths on the plantations ; 
and, the retiring of women from cotton growing. Nothing but the free 
use of fertilizers, and the best success in cultivating the land planted, 
can keep the average cotton yield with the present labor, up to two 
and a half millions of bales. The picking power — the quantity that 
can be picked — is the limit of our capacity in producing cotton; and, 
even if the present labor could produce more, we could not save more. 
We do not think the deterioration of the negro labor will subside here 
so low as it has done in the British West Indies, on account of the 
climate of the Southern States being more rigorous, demanding more 
clothing, and the absence of indigenous and tropical fruits, on which 
they are fed so largely there. This fact will create a necessity on the 

7 



50 APPENDIX. 



part of these inoflfensive and easily contented people, for a larger 
amount of work to secure their subsistence. But for this difierence 
the results in both countries would be identically the same. 

LMMIGRATION, ETC. 

Improved lands can now be had in any of the Cotton States at prices 
varying from one to five pounds sterling — five to twenty-five dollars — 
per acre, and farming utensils and work stock can be purchased at fair 
prices. The great aversion that proprietors formerly had to the sub- 
division of their plantations, is now rapidly giving way, and lands can 
now be purchased or leased in convenient lots of any size. Whilst we 
candidly admit that there is a great aversion in the Southern mind, to 
political adventures, who come into our midst for the sole purpose of 
foisting themselves into oflice, we can insure immigrants (no matter 
from what quarter they may come,) who are honest and industrious 
men who come to seek homes among us, and to add to the wealth and 
prosperity of the country, that they will meet everywhere with a 
friendly and most hearty welcome. 

With the many inducements now presented to purchase cheap, 
healthful lands and comfortable homes, in a country possessing natural 
advantages unequalled in any other portion of the cotton world, does 
it not behoove the cotton trade, both of Europe and America, to direct 
public attention and immigration to us, and aid us in working our 
unoccupied cotton fields ? By so doing, they would indirectl}'^ benefit 
themselves and very materially aid us. Every variety of climate and 
soil is presented in the cotton belt, stretching from the Atlantic to the 
Rio Grande, and from the Ohio river to the Gulf of Mexico. 

The sun of heaven shines not on a land more varied in soil, climate, 
and production, or better fitted for the habitation of man. 

In consideration of all these advantages, your Memorialists ask that 
the influence of your Associations be exerted in directing intending 
emigrants to these States — believing them1;o be the best cotton pro- 
ducing districts on the globe — and that with requisite labor there is 
no limit, practically, to their facilities for the production of raw 
cotton — and that, too, at the comparatively low figure of sixpence per 
pound. 

ROBERT T. SAUNDERS, 

Of Memphis, Tennessee, Chairman. 

Note. — In this memorial the average of the Liverpool Cotton 
Brokers Association for American cotton, is adopted, viz., 443 pounds 
X^er bale. Memphis cotton is much heavier, 475 pounds per bale being 
the average the past season, as shown from the books of Bronson 
Bayliss & Co., Cotton Brokers, at Memphis, Tennessee. 



APPENDIX. 



51 



APPEN^DIX C. 



OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION. 

AMOS A. LAWRENCE, Mcassachusetts. 



W. P. Hmnes, Maine. 
E. A. Straw, New Hampshire. 
P. L. EOBLNSON, Vermont. 
E. R. MuDGE, Massachusetts. 
G.\iiDiNER Greene, Connecticut. 
Henry Lippitt, Rhode Island. 
D. J. Johnston, New York. 
George Christie, New Jersey. 
William Divine, Pennsylvania. 
D. Lammot, Jr., Delaware. 
James A. Gary, Maryland. 



D. Callender, Virginia. 
J. T. Morehead, North Carolina. 
L. D. Child, South Carolina. 
W. E. Jackson, Georgia. 
Daniel Pratt, Alabama. 
J. M. Wesson, Mississippi. 
George Brodie, Arkansas. 
R. T. Saunders, Tennessee. 
H. D. Newcomb, Kentucky. 
Adolphus Meyer, Missouri. 
C. H. Gould, Ohio. 



A. B. Bacon, Louisiana. 

Daniel Park, Massachusetts. 

^ ttxttnx-Q. 
Edward P. Bond, Massachusetts. 

^lUxnxxct €ommiiitt, 

George L. Ward, Massachusetts. 
W. A. BuRivE, Massachusetts. I Dennis B. Ivelly, Pennsylvania. 
Charles S. Smith, New York. George P. Tiffany, Maryland. 



* B. F. Nourse, Massachusetts. 

Edw. Atkinson, Massachusetts. I James Hamilton, Mississippi. 
Chas. a. Nichols, Rhode Island. | Willia:m M. Bell, Pennsylvania. 



52 



APPENDIX. 



P a t Ij i it ;e r g €ommxtttt. 

E. A. Straw, New Hampshire. 
W. T. HoRROBiN, Vermont. I Robert Johnston, New York. 

Richard Garsed, Pennsylvania. | H. N. Gajibrill, Maryland. 



Slnlrr "^ntzxxni €ommxiitz. 

B. r. NouRSE, Massacliusetts. 
James R. King, New Jersey. I Charles C. Taber, New York. 

Abram Murdock, Alabama. Tnos. J. Borden, Massacliusetts. 



IXtttoXB, 



Augustine Haines, Maine. 

A. D. LOCKWOOD, " 

S. Batchelder, Massachusetts. 

W. A. BURIOE, 

Josiah Bardwell, " 

Richard D. Rogers, " 

t. j. coolidge, " 

George L. Ward, " 

J. Wiley Edmands, " 

Erastus B. Bigelow, " 

William Amory, " 
James Y. Smith, Rhode Island. 

M. B. LoCKWOOD, " 

Amos N. Becicwith, " 

William S. Slater, " 

George W. Chapin, " 

A. D. Smith, " 



N. Upham, Connecticut. 

A. B. Burleson, " 

Sajmuel W. Johnson, New York. 
Archibald Campbell, Penn. 

B. H. Jenks, 

Dennis B. Kelly, " 

George Callahan, " 

Robert Patterson, " 

Richard Garsed, " 

John Earnum, " 

William Kennedy, Maryland. 
B. Deford, " 

W. H. Baldwin, Jr., " 

Thomas J. Hardeman, Georgia, 
Benjamin Micon, " 

Edward Harrison, Alabama. 
Abraham S. Humphries, Miss. 



